Time for Internet taxes?

Declan McCullagh reports on two bills in the Senate to impose taxes on e-commerce. From Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) comes the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act, which would "affect only shipments sent to participating states. If California joined the so-called compact, for instance, the bill would require Amazon to collect sales taxes even if the state of Washington objected and did not sign up. The legislation would apply only to businesses with more than $5 million in 'gross remote taxable sales' each year." 18 states have signed up.

A bill from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) would "order the Small Business Administration to determine which businesses would be required to comply with the tax collection rules. Congress would be required to ratify that decision."

Under a Supreme Court decision, states can do nothing until Congress acts, which it has been unable to do largely because of the complexity of myriad state tax systems.