Tax-free online shopping may be ending

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 20, 2005 | by Bob Tedeschi New York Times News Service

Berman of Amazon objects to the $5 million floor: "A far more reasonable threshold would be $10,000 a year. Businesses who sell up to $5 million are not small."

Whatever tax responsibilities are foisted on online businesses, consumers are likely not to notice, according to Patti Freeman Evans, an online retail analyst with Jupiter Research. Evans said most land-based retailers, like Wal-Mart and Macy's, already collect sales taxes for all online purchases, since they want to offer services like in-store returns for their dot-com customers, and use their stores to help promote the Web site.

But for those who do not collect taxes for more than a handful of states, a change in legislation will probably not hurt sales. Just 9 percent of consumers surveyed by Jupiter said they would buy less or stop buying from an online store if it charged sales tax.

"It's not that big a deal to consumers," she said. "So there will be little loss."