AG, governor have same goal on internet sales
JACKSON – Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, often at odds over legal issues, find themselves on the same side of a legal fight – to allow states to collect sales tax on internet purchases.
Earlier this month, Hood, Mississippi’s lone statewide elected Democrat, announced his office is joining the efforts of 10 other states’ attorneys general in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of the state of Colorado in its effort to tax internet transactions.
Hood said a 1992 ruling by the Supreme Court that prohibited states from collecting sales tax from merchants unless the business had “a brick and mortar” presence in the state was placing local retailers at a competitive disadvantage.
“If local stores are unable to compete with out-of-state online retailers, we lose jobs, an important tax base and a critical investment in our communities,” Hood said in a news release. “We’re asking the Supreme Court to even the playing field for merchants and to allow the states to gain the revenue that should be due to them.”
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