Pay Internet Sales Tax? Shyeah, Right!

As you've probably seen, many states want an Internet sales tax. Yeah, well, they can go on wanting it. If I'm buying stuff from California or Katmandu, I see no reason to send any of it to Columbus. Especially since Ohio tried this before; there was a voluntary Internet sales tax box on our Ohio tax forms a couple years back. Nobody paid, of course. Why would you? More to the point, how could you possibly go through all your past records of stuff bought over the Net and determine what qualified and what didn't? It was a stupid plan.

The really important thing about this article is that:

" Some major retailers this week began
voluntarily charging online sales taxes in 37 states
and the District of Columbia, a move that could
reshape the way business is done on the Web.

Retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Toys ‘‘R’’ Us and
Target, hope their first steps will help bolster the
states’ effort to mandate online sales taxes, leveling
the playing field between themselves and
Internet-only rivals.

In other words, the big companies think that if everybody has to pay sales tax some of their smaller rivals, who are only on the Net or get lots of business there, will fade away because of the increased accounting problems. How nice.

The moral of the story (at least for now) is -- don't buy over the Web from retailers who charge sales tax. This may change big retailers' tune. Even if it doesn't, at least you're not spending extra money.