Article from The Washington Examiner by Jason Pye.

Congressional Republicans are in a strange place at the moment. Democrats wrongly criticize the landmark “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” as a giveaway to corporate giants that largely ignores average Americans. Yet, rather than defending the pro-growth momentum carried forward by tax reform, some Republicans are promoting an Internet sales tax that plays right into this false Democratic narrative.

An Internet sales tax would benefit corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart, while effectively raising taxes on shoppers who frequent small businesses online.

Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., is tirelessly championing her online tax increase to be added to the omnibus spending bill, convinced there are corners of America where “we need more taxes on the internet” would be an applause line with conservatives.

Even if some Americans and state government tax collectors, (legislators and public employee unions are certainly on that list) do want more online taxes, the current timing is odd. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in mid-April in South Dakota v. Wayfair that will revisit a 1992 decision in which the court determined that it was unconstitutional for a state to collect sales and use tax from a business that does not have a physical presence in its borders. Passing federal legislation to allow states to collect Internet sales tax from sellers located in other states would preempt the Court and render the Wayfair case moot.

Read the entire article at The Washington Examiner.

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons