Actually complying with this will be a nightmare
its not just 50 states and their taxes, its county and town level as well.
a nightmare
I am of the opinion that ...if... (now "since") we have an Internet tax, Congress should step in and use the interstate commerce clause to require that:
1) each state publish a tax rate to apply to transactions that are shipped from that state from other states
2) each state publish a tax rate to apply to all transactions that are received by that state from other states
3) each tax rate will be all inclusive for that state
4) establish a tax authority to receive tax reimbursements for either #1 or #2 and to remit taxes collected internally to subdivisions of the state.
5) Require taxes be collected by the seller of an interstate good or service
6) The tax rate to be the average of the "shipped from" and "received" applicable rates
7) The tax collected to be remitted to the tax authorities in #4
8) the taxes collected to be divided 50/50 between the two tax authorities
This will acheive a couple of things-
-It will simplify tax collection
- it will strongly encourage businesses to locate in lower tax states
- subsequently it will apply pressure to the states to lower their tax rates as businesses relocate their work force.