Internet Sales Taxes: A Return to Blue Law Practices?

Oh, ye gods and gophers. The "Blue Laws" of yesteryear are rearing their bizarre heads on Capitol Hill.

Michelle Malkin reports here that a Republican Senator from Wyoming (?!? Are you listening, brother-in-law?) and a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts (is there anything but Democrats in Massachusetts?) will introduce legislation requiring internet retail sales merchants to collect sales tax on behalf of all the states. Serious lobbying is expected to ensue on both sides of the issue.

Malkin points out that this is just one more hidden tax that will smack the middle class in the face, and that collecting the taxes will be nearly impossible because the tax structures among the states vary so widely, with one state taxing something one way and another not taxing it at all.

I'll point out how ridiculous the Blue Laws (Sunday Sales Prohibition Laws) were. Let's take a stroll down memory lane.

When my older daughter was a baby, Arkansas had yet to do away with Blue Laws and the sale of clothing was prohibited on Sunday. Okay, no serious clothes shopping on Sunday -- deal with it. But, some nimrod in the Revenue Department came up with the brilliant decree that disposable diapers are "clothing." No Sunday sales of disposable diapers. Have you ever had a baby with tummy issues and no diapers? Not a pretty picture (or memory!). Also, you couldn't buy a leather belt because it's an item of clothing, but you could buy a leather dog collar. No sales of hand tools, no sales of tools enabling you to cook. So, you could buy plastic wrap because that was only a food storage tool, not a food preparation tool. Aluminum foil, on the other hand, could be used to prepare food, so no aluminum foil on Sunday for you.

Figuring out what and how to tax internet sales will be as difficult to figure out as what could be sold under the Blue Laws.

Egad.

Cross-posted here.