I had no idea that online retailers were collecting sales taxes till I tried to purchase a computer from Dell.com and HP.com.  The internet is becoming more heavily regulated as state and federal politicians use scare tactics to enforce taxes.  I know of no federal or state tax law that was passed that requires online retailers to collect state sales taxes.  It was always rather accepted that if you were selling goods online and sold them in your state, you are liable to collect a state sales tax and thus pay that tax.  Now it seems that large e-commerce websites/corporations are collecting state taxes for a law that doesn’t even exist.  They are collecting state sales taxes for for sales when they have no physical presence in that state.  The corporations are complying with a federal “guideline” or demand in order to prevent any serious financial fines or penalties.   When purchasing a computer over the phone from Dell the other day I was shocked when I was told that I would have to pay a sales tax.  The Dell employee stated, “We just recently started collecting state sales tax and paying that to your state, as a result of federal government actions - or something to that extent.  It seems like large corporations are willing to tax their customers in order to placate the government.  Go on eBay and purchase from small time sellers and I doubt you will have to pay a sales tax.  The internet ecommerce top 500 sites are all probably switching over to this change.  It seems as if corporations and consumers are getting screwed, and state/federal government are the only winners here.  So I guess the debate over online sales tax is officially over, and I didn’t even know the debate had even begun.