Gardere Partner Peter Vogel Comments on e-Commerce Taxation

In a recent issue of eCommerce Times, Gardere Partner Peter Vogel provided comments on new California legislation requiring Internet retailers to collect sales tax.

"Where you get into problems is it's tremendously difficult to say where the transaction takes place," Mr. Vogel said. "I'm sitting in New Mexico and I buy a book from Amazon, which is in Washington State and the book ships from Kansas. Where is the taxable event? In the past, with mail order, the rule was if the company did not have a presence in your state, they didn't charge tax."

The complete article can be found here.