[CurlyDave]

... If you send an item from your state to someone in another state you don’t have a relationship with the latter state so collecting sales tax on their behalf would be kinda dumb...

But you do have a relationship with that state -- you have a customer who lives there.

And, the tax is on the customer, not on the business.

[robroys woman]

But you do have a relationship with that state — you have a customer who lives there.

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That is not a relationship with the state. It is a private relationship. The state does not know who I am conversing with outside the state. An a package is private. Now, if a company within the state sells me something, even if it is a mail order or internet sale, it is reported to the state as income because the retailer is in the state.

And as you said, the tax is on the customer, not the business. Therefore the customer is responsible to pay the tax on a sale from a business outside the state since he is the only one in the state. We get Market Spice tea from Seattle delivered to our home in central KY. Market spice charges us for it and sends us the product. If we are taxed in our state, it’s up to us to pay any taxes. It is not up to market spice (a very small company) to be privy to every local tax within the entire united states. It would be draconian to require such a thing. It is also something only “big business” could hope to adhere to.

i.e. This would REQUIRE companies like market spice to do business through companies like Amazon. Come to think of it, maybe that is why this push is on.