[avanderveen]

Because HN readers aren't idiots. We know that it is good and right for sales tax to be charged on sales. And, that the sale occurring on the internet does not make it an essentially different thing than any other purchase of a good or service. I think that, for HN readers, is very important: the internet is a different marketplace, not a different reality, and to treat it differently in some aspects can lead to legal problems and credibility issues down the road.

In terms of the nightmare that is implementation, that is another story.

[driverdan]

This is absurd. First you assume you speak for all of HN. Then you imply you're an idiot if you don't think it's "good and right for sales tax to be charged on sales."

[Glyptodon]

I don't think we know that - I'm pretty sure more than 0 of us suspect that sales tax shouldn't exist at all.

[smacktoward]

Then go ahead and make that argument, if you believe it. But it has little to do with the status quo, which is that sales tax exists but is only collected from offline businesses. In other words, arguing for the continuance of the status quo isn't arguing that sales tax is immoral, it's arguing that online businesses somehow deserve a free ride offline ones don't.