Thumbs up: Leveling the playing field for retailers

Thumbs up to the U.S. Supreme Court for Thursday's decision to eliminate an unfair advantage for online retailers over brick-and-mortar stores. The court, siding with 40 states and the Trump administration, ruled that internet retailers can be required to collect sales taxes on transactions in states where they don't have a physical presence. “It is unfair and unjust to those competitors, both local and out of state, who must remit the tax; to the consumers who must pay the tax; and to the states that seek fair enforcement of the sales tax - a tax many states for many years have considered an indispensable source for raising revenue,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for a 5-to-4 majority that overturned a 1992 ruling in a case involving catalog retailers.

A Government Accountability Office audit said states missed out on about $13.7 billion in revenue in 2017 because of uncollected sales taxes on internet purchases. California officials estimate the state loses about $2 billion annually despite passing a law a few years ago to require large online retailers to collect sales taxes.

Everybody likes to save a buck, and shoppers have saved by ordering products online from retailers who don't collect taxes. But they also lost, because their communities collected fewer dollars to pay for police and fire protection and other public services.

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