Kirkwood City Council To Explore Internet Sales Tax
With Internet sales on the rise, Kirkwood is tentatively exploring a new tax on goods and services purchased online.
With a looming budget deficit and spending cuts as the theme for this year's Missouri legislature, it's no surprise that communities are looking for new ways to generate revenue. Kirkwood Mayor Art McDonnell suggests that an Internet sales tax is an option worth exploring. Missouri does not tax goods and services bought on the Internet, even though more than 10 percent of all national retail occurred online last year, according to McDonnell. "There's a lot of purchasing going on that we aren't getting revenue from," the mayor said. "And if the online shopping is taking business from local shops, it's like a double-whammy." Currently, state law does not allow for the city of Kirkwood, or any other municipality, to pass and enforce an …
Linda Austin
8:39 pm on Monday, January 17, 2011
This would be very messy. Will they ask online sellers (WalMart, Amazon, LandsEnd, as well as ebay and etsy and private Amazon sellers, etc., to track the sales tax percentages of every city in the country their customers come from in order to collect sales tax to pay those cities? Those sales percentages can change anytime there is a vote. Online sellers already pay sales tax to customers' … more ›