Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:02:39 -0600 (CST)
From: <samlubell at verizon.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Shopping online?
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

>From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
>I suspect they are going to have problems in court over that one.  The
>Constitution very clearly states that the Federal Government has the power
>to regulate interstate commerce, not the states.  They can tax those
>entities operating in their own borders, but trying to tax ones operating
>elsewhere isn't going to work, and e-commerce sites will just move to
>places that don't have sales tax

I think you are misreading the argument.  The sales tax that applies is that of the *buyer's* state, not the seller's.  So technically, this does not violate interstate commerce as the out of state merchant would just collect the tax from the in-state resident doing the purchasing.  And so moving the merchant to a sales-tax free state won't help.  Moving out of the country might.