[darryl]

I find myself in the position of agreeing totally with pwalker8. Not all that frequent, but welcome Are there no governments in this world that consider the practicality of collecting a tax when they legislate for it? Let's face it, Harry. Use tax is ridiculous because it is unenforceable, if not literally then because it would cost far more to administer properly and collect than the revenue it produces. Human nature is what it is. And bad laws, including practically unenforceable ones tend to bring the law and the legistlature itself into contempt. I suspect that there are very few taxpayers in the states concerned who do not ignore it. And if the tax administrations concerned are sensible they probably don't throw away too much money trying to collect. Nor would i suspect many successful prosecutions for evading it, though I'm sure there is an occasional conviction with huge publicity to encourage "voluntary" compliance.

It is regrettable that local businesses are placed at a disadvantage. The best solution is for governments is to relieve local businesses of the burden and raise their revenue elsewhere. Or better still in most cases, cut some unnecessary expenditure and do without. Certainly a token use tax which is widely ignored simply gives the appearance of having solved the problem without doing so. While separate jurisdictions exist and levy their own taxes this type of problem will continue to occur.