A 19-member Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce is supposed to send its recommendation to Congress in April. Within that group, members are split. The Clinton administration opposes a ban on Internet sales taxes, as the chairman of the commission proposes, but is not ready to endorse sales tax, either, suggesting first developing a system for more uniform sales tax rates. That will be an obstacle. States may eventually have to go to a uniform sales tax rate, and Internet retailers may have to rely on computer software to calculate local rates.
Some system clearly has to be developed.
Sales tax need not quash Internet sales any more than it has for a Main Street business, but retailers do need to know what to charge. As a matter of fairness, though, and for the solvency of local governments, sales by catalog or over the Internet needs to be taxed the same as they are on Main Street.