Sid Salter: Ignore the online sales tax special interests
The fight in Mississippi over a very straightforward decision regarding whether it’s in the state’s best interests to collect the same 7 percent sales tax on online sales that we have forced bricks-and-mortar retailers to collect since 1932 is getting heated.
Opponents of online sales tax collections want you to forget many substantive facts….
…Forget that there is no logical, rational argument that justifies forcing traditional retailers to collect sales taxes while giving online retailers a pass. Forget that Amazon and other online sellers already see the handwriting on the judicial wall — hence their negotiated settlements with a growing number of states because they know the old Quill decision is on the ropes.
Forget that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch wrote in a recent Colorado case involving the online sales tax question in a concurring opinion in Direct Marketing Association Inc. v. Brohl: “If anything, by asking us to strike down Colorado’s law, out-of-state mail order and internet retailers don’t seek comparable treatment to their in-state brick-and-mortar rivals, they seek more favorable treatment, a competitive advantage, a sort of judicially sponsored arbitrage opportunity or ‘tax shelter.’”
Clarion Ledger
2/19/17
