Many find the convenience of online shopping valuable, especially during busy times of the year such as the current holiday shopping season. Federal law dictates that internet retailers are required to only collect sales tax from buyers in states in which they maintain a physical presence. Many shoppers avoid paying sales tax from convenient online retailers such as Amazon.com since Amazon does not have a physical presence in their state.
States such as North Carolina offers taxpayers the ability to pay their own sales tax for online purchases on their tax returns. The state claims that only a fraction of online purchases are actually accounted for by taxpayers.
North Carolina's new Revenue Secretary David Hoyle is pressing hard to force internet retailers that ship to his state to collect sales tax. Currently, the state of North Carolina is involved in several court battles with online merchants such as Amazon.com to push this mandate forward. Secretary Hoyle has mentioned that he intends to push the retailers to collect or pay taxes on all of the purchases shipped to North Carolina since the company began shipping into the state.
Will these changes impact your purchasing decision if they are implemented? In many states such as New York (where I am originally from,) online retailers are required to collect sales taxes on items purchased by those that reside there.
What are your thoughts? Should the government keep their hands off internet sales, or do you feel that the increased tax revenue the state will see will be a benefit to its residents?
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