Some people are taking a strong position against Internet Sales tax. I think that at this time the government should not be allowed to expand taxing authority over Internet sales. However, I have some mixed thoughts about the topic in general.
One viewpoint against Internet sales tax states that the power to tax is the power to destroy. While this may be true, why should it apply to Internet sales any more than non-Internet sales? That is, we are not worried about other sales taxes giving the government the power to destroy non-Internet businesses.
In fact I am thinking that if there is some kind of fair tax (ie, sales tax) that can be used as a replacement for income taxes, estate taxes and more, then it might only work to cover all sales, regardless of channel. Why should one channel get a special break? Giving the special break would be equivalent to saying that mail-order purchases should be exempt also. Why do Internet sales get this special treatment?