Virginia residents, businesses split over Internet sales tax
Both sides of the issue want to sway Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, to their side. The R Street Institute’s Andrew Moylan says a new poll reveals that most Virginians don’t want their goods purchased through sites such as eBay to be taxed. He also says the process is burdensome because on-line businesses would be required to pay varying taxes based on each state and purchase point. He says there’s another option.
“The sort of technical term for it is origin sourcing, but in practice what that means is allowing online retailers to utilize the same collection scheme that brick and mortar retailers use, which is based on where they are physically present – where they are physically located. Then they only have to know one sales tax code – they only have to be accountable to one revenue agency.”
