martinibuster - 9:44 am on Jun 30, 2011 (gmt 0)

It's not 'another tax' it trying to collect an existing tax.

No.

Mail order has always been exempt from state sales tax when the seller did not have a physical presence in the state in which the sale was made. The idea is that you can't tax a sale that happened in another state. Mail order shopping (and ecommerce) allows you to purchase a product that is for sale in another state.

Now here is what you are missing, which makes this "another tax" as opposed to an existing one. The traditional principle for taxation was based on Physical Presence. If the retailer did not have a physical presence then states could not collect the sales tax. This law changes all that. This is not an existing tax. It is a NEW tax, a tax on the regular person, you and me.

Therefore, this is "another tax" because it is taxing a transaction that was formerly exempt.

The media is presenting this as the Amazon Tax. That is a misleading description of the tax. Nothing could be further from reality. This is not a tax on Amazon. It's a tax on the average citizen.

[edited by: martinibuster at 9:56 am (utc) on Jun 30, 2011]