Stephen Sprunk wrote:
On 23-Jan-12 08:06, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Stephen Sprunk wrote:

And then there's Congress's Internet sales tax moratorium, so the same
product ordered by the same buyer from the same seller may by taxed if
the order was by phone or mail but not if online.

You misstated that. State sales taxes are collected on in-state sales;
there is no federal jurisdiction to impose a moratorium. Use taxes are
levied on interstate sales.

You well know that "sales tax" is almost always an abbreviation of
"sales and use tax", and the fact we have two different terms is a relic
of politicians playing games to get around the obvious
unconstitutionality of what they really wanted to do.

You still miss the point as to who the burden of paying and collecting
the tax falls on: The seller in case of in-state sales, and the buyer
in case of out-of-state sales. The state lacks jurisdiction on out of
state sellers due to the federal constitution.

Because you miss this point, you miss the obvious that there is no
federal moratorium in fact as collection of state use taxes is in
no way a federal issue.

Congress's a moratorium was on the collection of "use tax" on internet
purchases, which is also of questionable constitutionality, but since
the vast majority of customers never paid it anyway, nobody seems to care.

It's not of questionable constitutionality. There's no question about
the unconstitutional nature of the federal government imposing any
method of state tax collection.