Several large retailers this week began collecting sales tax on Internet purchases. The move arose from an agreement among about 38 states and the District of Columbia that went into effect this week. The deal was struck last fall after states complained that they've been losing billions of dollars in tax revenue as online sales rise. In exchange for signing onto the agreement, the retailers will not be held liable for back sales taxes they may owe, according to people familiar with the agreement. Those involved would not say which retailers agreed to the deal, but retailers including Toys "R" Us, Wal-Mart and Target recently posted new policies on sales taxes. Amazon.com, which has partnerships with Target.com, MarshallFields.com and Mervyns.com to sell items online, notified customers of the change through a posting on its site. http://news.com.com/2100-1017-983636.html?tag=lh
"Meanwhile, there's a move afoot in Congress to ban online sales taxes altogether. In January, Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., renewed their efforts to prohibit online sales taxes by introducing a bill that would turn the current moratorium into an outright ban. The moratorium on discriminatory Internet sales taxes--which are taxes that wouldn't be levied on offline sales--expires in November. " I hope these guys end up winning. Sales tax on online purchases sucks. State governments should just try cutting back on expenses and beauracracy just like everyone else, instead of trying to scam people out of more of their hard earned money.
Any place with a business location in your state will charge you sales tax (or is supposed to, anyways). For instance, if I had bought those 191t monitors from Dell, they were going to charge me sales tax. But, if I lived in SC (less than a mile from my house), no sales tax.