Several major retailers in 37 states - including Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and Target - have begun collecting Internet sales taxes, hoping that doing so will put a bump into states' hopes of getting Internet sales tax levies against their Net-only retail competitors.
Jumping the legal gun is one way to put it. For now, the Associated Press says, current laws require catalogue companies and Net-only retailers to charge sales taxes only in the states where they have physical operations like warehouses and distribution centers.
"We can’t have a system that discriminates (against) some vendors in favor of others," Frank Shafroth, director of state-federal relations for the National Governors Association, said to the AP. "Why should there be a double standard?"
Several states have been anxious to use Net sales taxes as new and simpler ways to plug up budget shortfalls, and the issue has divided numerous state governors over the past several years. Forrester Research, a major Internet research analyst, says Net sales exploded to $79 billion in 2002 - up to three percent of the cumulative American retail market.
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