I posted this because I think a couple states already have laws that stipulate residents pay sales tax regardless of where they are buying from within the US. So I'm wondering if anyone else knows. And also the article made it seem like more states will be putting up similar laws.
Some states are putting up similar laws but I'm predicting they will all eventually get shot down in court. Remitting sales tax to 50 states and thousands of localities just isn't practical on many levels. It places an unacceptable burden on small businesses. Even large businesses like Amazon would have a hard time with this.
IMHO the Internet should remain tax free forever. It's been the fastest growing sector of the economy precisely because merchants have only had to collect sales tax from residents of the state they're operating in, if at all. Granted, many states have self-reporting requirements where people are supposed to remit the state sales tax themselves on Internet purchases, but the cost of enforcing such laws would likely exceed the taxes collected.
Laws like this don't level the playing field. Rather, they put Internet merchants at a big disadvantage. A brick and mortar store only must remit sales tax to the state and locality where it operates. An online business could potentially have to remit to every state and thousands of localities. If this kind of thing becomes the norm, I think we'll be seeing a huge decrease in online commerce. That will hit state coffers a lot more than any small amount of sales tax they may collect.
I guess if there's one constant in the universe it's that you can depend upon the government to kill a good thing.