United States Senate Approves New Online Tax Scheme

South of the border, our American friends have proposed new legislation aimed at imposing sales tax on customers shopping at large online retail websites.

Currently, only businesses with a physical presence in the state have to levy sales taxes. The law would not apply to retailers with less than $1M in online sales, but would still involve massive reform and regulation.

At the moment, large companies such as Walmart and Target must collect sales taxes on online purchases in all states where they have stores. Other online retailers such as eBay and Amazon are exempt though, except in states where they have offices or distribution centres.

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, has so many distribution centres across the United States it is often subject to state sales tax anyway and therefore comes as no surprise that it supports the Bill.