The point of this thread was about "sales tax" and the internet, so Ill make two points on this since moreluck made it political.
1) all politicians make errors on taxes, some get away with it and some have to make it right after its discovered. McCaskill has made it right, all money paid to the goverment, case closed.
This doesnt make her a bad person or unfit for office, and if it does in "someones" mind, then Sarah Palin would have to suffer that same fate.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/18/palin-told-to-pay-back-taxes/
Sarah Palin was ordered to pay back taxes on money she improperly took while governor of Alaska and she has had to pay the taxes on that money. So, if you believe Claire McCaskill is a bad person, then Sarah Palin should be first on the list as her failure to pay taxes came long before McCaskills.
2) Internet sales taxes are a MUST in this country. As each state is losing revenue everyday, everyweek, everymonth and everyear, the internet is furthering that loss.
Revenue streams in each state are shrinking. Property taxes are not being paid,
People are spending less in retail stores, people are registering cars, boats and trucks in other states to avoid fees.
The internet, while convenient to us "all" gives us the opportunity to find a cheaper price on goods and "evade" sales taxes in the process. The intended consequence would be to "save" money as a buyer but the unintended consequence is the loss of revenue to our states.
This loss of revenue continues to climb each and every year. As this number increases, the need to RAISE taxes on other things in the state grows. There needs to be an offset to recover this money and the state has no choice but to find items to tax in the state that people cannot evade like:
Gasoline
soda pop
fast food
haircuts
carwashes
groceries
etc etc etc
Things like this you cannot get on the internet and it would be unlikely to evade paying a tax on them. As long as "WE" the people evade paying sales taxes in our states, the states will have no choice but to tax other things in the meantime.
Each state has a large budget to handle, infrastructure costs money, and if a state cannot collect the most basic type of tax then that infrastructure will collapse.
There are many children to teach, many people who are sick, many people who are broke, many people who are unemployed and many people who commit crimes, and cutting services related to each of these problems isnt the answer.
We can never use less police or less fireman. This is a violent country and the violence increases year after year. Firemen are needed daily and emergencies hit this country with such frequency that reducing firemen would be detrimental.
It may seem like a simple thing, avoiding a sales tax on the internet, but multiplied by a million people a day ends up costing each state millions of dollars that could otherwise stop other taxes imposed on us so at the end of the day, what did you really save shopping on the internet?
Peace.