Pa. online sales tax: Corbett expects to collect $48 million from new tax but eBay is fighting it

Governor Tom Corbett expects to collect $43 million from a new online sales tax. Photo credit: Christine Baker, The Patriot-News.

Governor Tom Corbett hopes to collect tens of millions of dollars through an online sales tax that went into effect this weekend, the AP reports. Saturday was the deadline for online retailers to register with the Department of Revenue and start collecting a six percent sales tax on orders shipped to Pennsylvania, on top of the two percent sales tax in Philadelphia.

The new tax has come with troubles of its own.

For one, the state has said that it’s not sure how many businesses should be collecting the tax, according to the AP.

Then there’s the larger issue of retailers like eBay who are fighting the tax, though Amazon recently changed its mind and now supports it. The Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano has more on what he calls the “Internet sales tax wars.”

The AP also points out that states could get help in collecting an online sales tax from the federal government:

Several bills pending in Congress would make it easier for states to bring in an estimated $20 billion in sales taxes from online merchants every year.

Corbett is one of seven Republican governors who in July endorsed the Marketplace Fairness Act, a Senate bill that has bipartisan support. It would authorize all states to require online retailers with $500,000 or more in annual sales to collect sales taxes, so long as states simplify their tax procedures and certify tax collection software for use by Internet companies. [more]