By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-27-17
Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin told a Senate Appropriations Committee audience at a hearing Wednesday that the administration is coming out with a position on state collection of internet taxes and signaled that could be a way to pay for needed infrastructure upgrades.
Currently states can collect taxes on sales by businesses in the state but not on online purchases by residents of the state.
Congress last year passed a bill permanently banning internet access taxes but continues to mull the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow states that simplified their own sales tax laws to require online retailers to collect sales taxes at the time (point) of the sale. Democrats, generally supportive of the act, wanted to vote on both bills, but that didn’t happen.