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Internet Sales Tax Gets a New Champion

Archness1 writes with an excerpt from Declan McCullagh's piece at CNET about the recently renewed push for a sales tax on Internet purchases, led by Massachusetts Representative Bill Delahunt. "At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors usually aren't required to pay sales taxes. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't be required to cough up the sales taxes that they would if shopping at a local mall." That could all change, though.

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  1. Re:That may well not be legal by Late+Adopter · · Score: 3, Informative

    You'll note there's never been a real push to enforce it and that is probalby because the state AGs are smart enough to know if it went to the federal courts, they'd likely get slapped down.

    I'm sorry but your facts are wrong. The Use Tax has seen a Supreme Court ruling, and it was in its favor: Henneford v. Silas Mason Co. (300 US 577, 1937), approves provided the tax "is not so measured or conditioned as to hamper the transactions of interstate commerce or discriminate against them" (read as: as long as Use Tax isn't larger than the Sales Tax).