Interstate Internet taxes a bad idea

Politicians who propose new interstate taxes on Internet retail sales thus seek the wrong sort of equality, the sort that would level not the playing field but the players. Internet consumers deserve better treatment. Because they use retail channels that impose fewer burdens on state and local government services than traditional retailers do, Internet consumers benefit their communities and our environment even as they benefit their own pocketbooks. Politicians should encourage that sort of shopping, not target it for special taxes. Neither should they try to implement such taxes by putting Internet retailers to work for states' revenue collection departments.

Principles of equality and fairness hardly explain the call to impose new interstate taxes on Internet retail sales. Fear and opportunism do, though. State politicians openly worry that the increasing popularity of Internet retailing will cut into the revenues generated by their sales and use taxes. It may turn out that online commerce generates enough overall economic growth and government cost savings to compensate for any lost tax revenues. Politicians who suspect as much probably worry, however, that this latest and greatest cash cow may escape them if they do not start taxing it soon. Some, sadly, seem just as willing to butcher Internet commerce as to milk it.