GOVERNMENT CONTROL: INTERNET TAXATION |
(01/08/2007) |
How long will it be before the government controls the Internet? Government is working hard to collect taxes on Internet sales. A University of Tennessee study says the revenue lost on uncollected Internet sales taxes came to nearly $94 million dollars in West Virginia last year. States have had problems cashing in on the taxes because a 1992 Supreme Court ruling says they can't force Internet retailers to collect them if they don't have a physical presence in a state. Companies like Wal-Mart can charge taxes on on-line purchases, but popular on-line retailers like Amazon.com do not. Most of the transactions the study cited were not retail purchases. About 70 percent of the tax revenue that's going uncollected from on-line transactions comes from business-to-business transactions. |