PhotoFor example, sales tax rules based on the location of the seller may be impossible to enforce if the company has no physical presence in that jurisdiction. And smaller online retailers can escape collecting sales taxes in more places than Amazon does — even when they use Amazon to sell their products. Usually it is states — not cities or counties — that decide who has to collect local sales taxes. “This huge hole that exists in the sales tax structure has been known for a long time,” Mr. Peterson said. Local sales taxes add just 1 or 2 percent to prices in most cities, not enough to sway most shoppers’ decisions.

Source: New York Times March 25, 2018 21:22 UTC