Last week, the Oklahoma State House passed several bills that would raise taxes in different areas in order to negate a $300 million deficit incurred during the fiscal year as well as an estimated $1.2 billion deficit for 2011.

 

One of these bills targets purchases made either through catalogs or online by forcing online vendors to notify their customers that they must pay the state use tax (a sales tax on for out-of-state purchases).  The bill, however, was stripped down from an original measure that mirrored an effort in Colorado and North Carolina requiring online retailers to submit private information about consumers to the Department of Revenue.  Not only did this raise significant First Amendment and privacy concerns, but it amounted to an $40 million tax hike.  Many of these provisions, however, were removed after strong opposition.

 

In a similar move, California also seeks to implement a similar tax upon state residents, this time with the privacy violations included.  As part of $4.9 billion in tax hikes, the legislature is attempting to revive Assembly Bill 2078, which would increase taxes on sales of online goods by about $100 million  a year.  These so called “Amazon Taxes”, much like the Oklahoma bill, will require retailers to notify their consumers of owed sales taxes.  The bill also states that retailers divulge the “names, addresses and purchase details of transactions to California authorities each month.”