Net Sales Tax Supporters Hope For More GOP Support

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) says he's working with other supporters to attract more Republican co-sponsors for legislation that would require online retailers to collect sales taxes in states where they have no store or other facility.

Sen Durbin said that he would like to see more GOP backers for the bill to help attract the 60 votes needed on the Senate floor to overcome a likely filibuster of the legislation. Sen Durbin is the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the legislation offered with Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN). The bill aims to close a loophole left by a 1992 Supreme Court decision that found states cannot require retailers to collect sales taxes from customers in states where the companies do not have a physical presence. At the time, the case applied to catalog retailers but has since been exploited by Internet retailers.