Why is it important for states to be able to collect taxes on e-commerce sales?
E-commerce is taxed now. It’s just difficult to collect it. Our purpose is to create a system that treats everyone the same. No one likes taxes, but if you have to have them, it ought to start with a basis of fairness, and that would mean that everyone would be treated similarly. It is a very serious competitive disadvantage for the brick-and-mortar store, and it is unfair. Likewise, it’s unfair to the taxpayers who pay their share to have a large group or a large segment of our economy excused from contributing to our schools and our roads and our law enforcement. E-commerce sales in the third quarter comprised 0.9 percent of overall retail sales, according to the Commerce Department. That’s basically the same percentage as last year. How much is e-commerce really hurting the states? Less than 1 percent of overall retail sales doesn’t seem like a whole lot of money. Three years ago, it was only 0.3 percent. It’s basically gaining at very Leavitt on the importance of taxing e-commerce
