By Tony Huppert, CEO of Team Oil Inc.

I recently read an article on the ongoing battle between the brick and mortar stores and online stores over sales tax collection. Services supplied to the State are normally reimbursed financially according to the service rendered. That’s the real issue.

The main reason online stores do not want to charge customers sales tax is because it costs them money. The ongoing fight between the brick and mortar and online retailers is a diversion of the real issue.

All retailers, brick and mortar and online, submitting sales tax to the State, spend their own money to collect, calculate and submit the tax. If the State wanted to solve the issue they would reimburse the retailers for the service of collecting and processing the sales tax. The State realizes it costs retailers 6% of the amount collected to process sales tax for the State. This was proven by the research done previous to the sale of State sponsored lotteries.

If the retailers were paid 6% of total sales tax they processed, as a service to the State, the Sales Tax Issue would be solved and the legislators could go back to other issues. Sales tax is the only tax where the retailer’s receives no compensation.

More taxes would be collected and the retailer would not have to lose money every time they process sales tax, and, most importantly, it would legalize the collection method of Sales Tax according to the U.S. Constitution Amendment Five, “No private property can be taken for public use without proper compensation.”

It’s a Win Win and ‘A No Brainer’ all in one.