Date of Defense

Summer 6-14-2001

Department

Accountancy

First Advisor

Jerry Kreuze, Accountancy

Second Advisor

A.J. Cataldo, Accountancy

Third Advisor

Clark Risley

Keywords

electronic commerce, eCommerce, business-to-consumer, B2C, taxing

Abstract

The internet and its global cousin the World Wide Web have enabled businesses to expand their operations and market products and services around the world as never before. It is possible to purchase just about anything from anywhere in the world. Even small businesses are empowered on a global scale as never before by the technologies and economics of e-business made possible because of the existence of the Internet. As a consequence, this technology has created new problems for state and local governments concerned with the effects that Internet sales will have on revenue arising from sales taxes. Applying state and local sales taxes to Internet ("online") purchases has become an important issue to state and local governments concerned about the impact that Internet sales will have on their revenues. State and local sales tax revenues are an important source of funding for public safety, street maintenance, public parks, education and other government provided services. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia levy a sales tax of some kind. Some have even suggested that sales taxes could disappear almost entirely within a decade as more and more online enterprises devise ways to legally avoid collecting sales taxes. This paper examines the problem in depth and offers some possible solutions.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Campus Only

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