Re:How do you think it works in the EU ? (Score 2, Informative)

* I think Cook County may be the only county in the country that is legally permitted to levy its own sales tax, but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure about others, but in NY we have taxes at the state, county and city level.

This seems like a case of the states trying to make a grab for more money without upping their own taxes.

Catalogs have never had to pay out of state sales tax unless the company owned land in the state they were shipping to, like a warehouse, store or distribution center.

NY has been pushing this idea for a while now. Most people don't realize that NYS now demands sales tax on any item purchased out of state for use or consumption within NYS. They passed the law a couple years ago without much fanfare and buried it in a small easily overlooked section of the NYS tax return. I imagine it's just lurking there until they find an easy way to track incoming parcels from amazon and QVC.

So if you walk over the border to Pennsylvania, buy a candybar and don't eat it till you return home to NYS, you're supposed note that purchase on your tax return and pay the applicable sales tax on April 15th.