Electronic Commerce, Sales Tax, & the Implications for Missouri

Abstract

The internet is an ever-growing source of information, services, products, communication, and income for millions of people around the world. With these growing capabilities comes the issue of how to tax goods and services bought via the internet. According to the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998, electronic commerce (e-commerce) is defined as “any transaction conducted over the internet or through internet access, comprising the sale, lease, license, offer, or delivery of property, goods, services, or information” (Advisory Commission, 2000). E-commerce is important to state and local governments due to the large volume of sales conducted via the internet and the potential inability to tax and collect sales tax revenue from these transactions.