States Want A Piece Of The ‘Cyber Monday’ Pie

The Target web site is shown on a computer screen at a coffee shop in Providence, R.I. on Cyber Monday in 2011. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

Go to a store in your neighborhood and buy a tool, you’ll pay state sales tax (provided the item is subject to tax in your state). But buy that same tool online and most likely you will not pay state sales tax.

Consumers save money and an online retailer makes a sale. The local retailer loses a sale and the state loses the revenue.

But that’s changing now as states fight back.

As Michelle Quinn reports in Politico, residents of California, Texas and Pennsylvania will now be automatically charged state sales tax on Amazon.com and some other online retail websites.

The same will become true next year in Virginia and New Jersey, followed by Nevada, Indiana and Tennessee in 2014.

• Politico: Web shopping’s new holiday twist: Taxes

Guest:

• Michelle Quinn, technology correspondent for Politico Pro.