by John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
With Florida facing a $2.5 billion budget gap, rising Internet sales over the Thanksgiving holiday renewed calls Monday for the state to join others looking to make it easier to collect sales taxes from out-of-state and mail-order merchants.
Retail sales reached $45 billion nationally over Thanksgiving weekend, a $4 billion boost over 2009 levels. But equally remarkable, analysts said, was that the proportion of online sales rose to one-third of the holiday total, the highest ever, according to the National Retail Federation.
Monday, promoted as Cyber Monday the past five years by the federation, was expected to drive another round of heavy online sales.
But with many of these transactions not subject to state sales taxes, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda (D-Tallahassee) said Monday the trend bolstered her push for Florida to join the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which currently includes 24 states pushing to collect tax on remote sales.
Rehwinkel Vasilinda said the state would likely lose about $10 million in uncollected sales tax Monday alone.
“Ten million dollars would hire at least 300 new teachers, help our universities remain competitive, create incentives for bringing jobs to Florida, or for much needed social services still reeling from an almost 12 percent unemployment rate,” she said.
Online retailers that also have brick-and-mortar stores, such as Walmart and Best Buy, are required to collect Florida’s 6 percent state sales tax online. But Rehwinkel Vasilinda, who is backed by Florida TaxWatch and the Florida Retail Federation, says a huge number of purchases also come from such online-only retailers as Amazon and eBay, who are not required to collect.