It's creating a vast new communications marketplace. There are some legitimate difficulties with Internet sales taxes. One is the jurisdiction question, given the essentially locationless nature of the Net. Another is whether Congress has sufficient authority in this area, given the interstate-commerce clause of the Constitution. The most persuasive argument of all, in my view, is the nature of sales taxes themselves.
Sales taxes are regressive.
They should be abolished in favor of a less regressive system of levies. If we're lucky, this debate will lead to a true re-examination of taxation in general. It encourages the destruction of local tax bases. These laws are rarely enforced. But they will be and with terrible intrusiveness if state and local tax bases erode sufficiently.