The Internet tax debate

(From this morning’s Future Tense)

Cash-strapped states are targeting Internet merchants. Several are considering bills that would require merchants to collect sales taxes on digital downloads. Under a Supreme Court ruling, states can only require the merchants to collect the taxes online if they have a bricks-and-mortar presence in the state. In Minnesota, for example, a bill being considered by the Legislature would add a sales tax to downloads from iTunes and WalMart.

I talked first with Minneapolis representative Jim Davnie, the bill’s author, and then to Steve DelBianco, the executive director of NetChoice, a coalition of some of the biggest online corporations.

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