Many people shop online to avoid paying the tax they owe on their purchases.
In Tucson, though, some Internet shoppers are charged taxes that don't even exist. A shortcoming in software used to track sales tax from online purchases has led Compaq Computer Corp. and perhaps other online retailers to collect Tucson's 2-percent sales tax from shoppers who live outside city limits. And while the city's sales tax generally doesn't apply to even actual residents' purchases from remote retailers, Compaq is collecting it anyway. The city won't release the exact amount of tax paid by any retailer, he said. Some of those payments might be proper, Putz said, but others are from online stores and other remote retailers that mistakenly collected tax that isn't owed.