After some years of fighting any and all attempts on taxation, digital merchants seem to have made their peace with paying taxes and are starting to fall into line around the Online Sales Simplification Act of 2016.
The bill, which has been circulating for about a week, has garnered support from dozens of online retailers, particularly as a streamlined system for assessing sales tax collected on online orders. It would allow eRetailers to remit the collected monies to their home state revenue office in the same manner they already remit taxes collected on web sales to in-state residents.
Among supporters of the bill are Overstock.com, Colony Brands, Crutchfield, Mason Companies, Blue Nile, Potpourri Group, Christianbook.com and Harriet Carter Gifts, to name a few. The letter of support requests Congress to “bring certainty and rationality” to the online tax situation.
ECommerce is largely governed by a 1992 rule that requires digital merchants to assess sales taxes in states where they maintain a physical location (like a warehouse) but nowhere else. That has gotten more complex as individual states have enacted legislation that requires sales tax in a wider variety of cases, meaning retailers often complain of being governed by a hard-to-understand tangle of rules.
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