Online retailers shouldn’t help tax dodgers

The Newnan Times-Herald

community.

For too long, so-called virtual retailers have shirked their tax-collection duties with one excuse after another. Current law allows those without a physical presence in the state to escape the requirement.

House Bill 61 by Ways and Means Chairman Jay Powell, R-Camilla, would shrink that physical-presence loophole that most e-retailers slip through. If enacted, the bill would require those with more than $250,000 in sales or 200 transactions yearly to either collect the tax or send notices to their customers who made purchases of $500 or more telling them of the tax they owe. Copies of the notices would go to the Georgia Department of Revenue.

Make no mistake: This is not a tax increase. The law already says it’s owed by the consumer. This is a compliance issue.

A broad-based sales tax is a prudent method of generating money to fund vital government functions because, if applied fairly, it captures those in the underground economy. Plus, citizens can minimize their taxes by controlling their shopping.

Conservatives miss the point when they warn that online sale-tax collections will lead to waste by governments as their treasures fatten.

Indeed, governments that rely on sales-tax revenue have seen their incomes decline year by year as Americans make more purchases online. But waste should be controlled by monitoring spending proposals and tax rates, not by looking the other way at noncompliance by e-retailers.

We applaud the House in voting 157-11 for Powell’s bill. We encourage the Senate and governor to get behind it, too.