DAILY JOURNAL – OUR OPINION: Mississippi needs sales tax on remote purchases
Any business that doesn’t have a bricks-and-mortar facility in Mississippi doesn’t have to collect the sales tax. It is estimated that $300 million in tax revenue is lost to the state every year because no law clearly allows the state to collect the tax.
The taxes not collected carry no penalty, but the not-paid or collected taxes could meet some pressing needs.
Not collecting sales taxes or not-encouraging payment of sales taxes amounts to giving remote businesses a “tax break” advantage never set in law.
Every Mississippi business is required collect sales taxes identical items sold from remote locations. It is due from the buyer not the business at purchase….
…Some legal remedy is needed to make the payment of remote sales tax, regardless of brick-and-mortar presence, as easy as assessing the same tax on in-person purchasers at a Mississippi retail shop.
Daily Journal
8/14/16
Magnolia Tribune
