Sid Salter: Collect that online sales tax
The percentage of total tax revenue in Mississippi comprised of sales tax is nearly 40 percent, so declines in sales tax collections lost when revenue from growing online sales isn’t collected creates even more problems — and at a time when the state needs revenue for public education, transportation and infrastructure, public health care and corrections.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas legislators have all taken steps to level the playing field for their bricks-and-mortar retailers trying to compete with mega-online retailers. Mississippi lawmakers can and should follow suit.
To do less is to subsidize Amazon and some of the most successful online retailers on the planet at the expense of Mississippi brick-and-mortar retailers and employers.
Clarion Ledger
1/11/17
Magnolia Tribune
