Because while dot com businesses are thriving, our Main Street merchants are struggling just to keep their doors open. However, the issues surrounding the growth of the Internet are far more complex than sales tax collection. They include revenue ramifications of tax equity, impacts on low income citizens and a phenomenal loss of funding to Alabama s public school systems. Let me explain. Alabama has the lowest property tax in the nation.
Sales tax is the number one revenue producer for our state and for most of our cities.
Current restrictions on property taxes will continue to keep them low. Catalog sales further complicate this issue. Already our state and local governments lose millions of sales tax dollars on mail-order purchases. Compounded with Internet sales, the loss could be devastating to our state and its cities and towns. It is imperative that Congress address sales tax collection for both Internet and mail-order purchases.