I could tolerate an internet sales tax under two conditions: (1) the vendors are obligated to collect it and pay it to the states, and (2) an accompanying luxury sales tax on purchases (made anywhere) over, say, $25,000 or $50,000 or whatever, is implemented at the same time. That pair of sales taxes hits both ends of the economic spectrum. Perhaps the luxury tax could be defined at a rate such that it brings in the same revenues as the internet sales tax.

Some online businesses already collect sales taxes. I have pre-paid cell phone that charges state sales tax for online additions of air time. I used to work for them. This is a nationwide company and charges state taxes for every state that has sales tax. The computer calculates sales taxes for the particular state by the area code on the phone number. So there are systems that can do this for any online business.

Also, if the online business is located in the same state you live in, and there's sales tax in that state, you may be charged. Example: Amazon is located in Seattle, WA. If I order something online from Spokane, WA I'm subject to state sales tax, just as if I walked into a store. If I order from an address in Oregon or Idaho, there's no tax added. It may be a state by state thing, but taxes are already attached to some online transactions.

Here in the UK the poor pay more for everything, like peoole who can't afford to have quarterly fuel bills, well they have to have a " key" meter, which one used to have to pay to have put in situ in the first place,I don't know if they still charge, it wasn't untill I'd run up a massive bill (so called "economy 7' storage heaters are crap & expensive, when it gets really cold in the evening the heat has all gone! + I also have to pay more for my "normal" hours the17 hours between 6.30am GMT & 11.30pm GMT, its 7.30am to 11.30 pm in the "summer", however its been too cold to ev hitch the heating off completely since our last "real " summer back in 2006! & I wear full, covering my ears as well hat, & can't afford to have the hot water system on, I do have an electric shower, the most expensive sort to use, unless I shower in the middle of the night!, which I end up doing as for medical reason I have to shower more than "normal" Anyway there was no way I could pay the bill by the time they had bothered to send me one, & I then found out by accident that firstly they could put me on a "lower" tariff, & that I cold have it dedujcted fortnightly from my income support, my "estimated" fortnightly usage that is, & the arears would be capped each fortnight, untill I'd paid my debt off so I would have a longer time to repay but they do not actually TELL one about this, untill after you get into difficulty! I just wish that I could let the elderly, especially, & those with small children know about this, BEFORE they go down the "key" meter path, where if you run out of money, then no electric, plus to add insult to injury they charge about 3 times MORE per unit, & to top it off we pay tax on it!, so the poor pay more both in real terms & certainly as a proportion of their weekly income, a friend who is a teacher, & her husband an electrician, both working will find the electric has run out in the night, & have to go to a shop to top their "key" meter card up so that they can get ready for work, & when their children were younger get ready for school the only positive for them is that the shop was within walking distance, they still had to wait untill it opened though! We even had "key" meters for people who couldn't pay their water bills that was untill it was made illegal because they had cholera outbreaks in Scotland because people weren't able to flush their toilets, or wash their handsm yes people in the UK were actually without water to drink, make up baby milk, wash with etc...unbelieveable, but TRUE. It is also the people who live, (well the local working, who have the lowest paid jobs in the country & the local un-employed, not the rich who come here & buy up our housing pushing the house prices out of the reach of the local working population, who also bear the brunt of caring for the rich retirees who re-locate, without thinking realistically as to how they are going to cope when they can no longer drive, or walk up a steep road) in rural areas, especially where I live, when they up the tax on petrol & diesal for our cars, time & time again, it is the working rural, the lowest paid who bear the burden the heaviest, we don't have ANY Public transport in most of our villages, & certainly not transport that fits in with shift work, like nursing home workers have to work, & my ex - husband had to work, where they were the most productive papermill in the group, & yet the lowest paid! Inthe UK its the rich that pay the least taxes both in actual £s & and as a porportion of their actual income in both direct & indirect taxes it is totally insignificant compared to their income, go read what Jesus said about the the widow's mite. In the UK we already pay 20% tax on most items wherever we buy them from, inckuding on some "luxury" foodstuf like biscuits & women's sanitary wear, hardly something which I would call a luxury! Where the problem for us in Britain lies is that the massive internet companies like Amazon, so - called "Amazon UK" escape, quite legally from paying tax on their massive profits that they make out of people like me, who can't get to the shops.

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I agree with Banditthecat that brick and mortar businesses should not have to compete with a business that does not pay sales tax. Fairness has another benefit . . . there is less opportunity for black-market operations. Why? Because the more businesses that report sales, the easier it will be for the IRS to track down the scofflaws.