i'm actually surprised by the response here. i hate taxes and all the associative greediness and power trips by politicians. we have to pay on all online sales when we file our taxes and if amazon has a physical presence in virginia then they should be treated the same as any retailer. if folks don't like taxes then they need to take their change to the state capital and d.c. in the meantime, amazon should pay its fair share like all the rest of us. after all, how is the government going to bail out all the rich incompetent ceo's, political appointees, white collar criminals, iraq, iran, israel, afghanistan, and everyone but the taxpayer they're raiding money from unless they have monetary infusion?

"Does she voluntary pay taxes on items she buys online from vendors that don't collect?" butcheb you nailed it.

Amazon should have to follow the tax laws just like the rest of us!!

Every Virginian is a loser when Amazon does not collect sales taxes. The localities depend on the taxes to provide services and to pay for public education. It is short sighted to think of the individual savings rather than the common benefit of having the taxes collected. This is another example of a big corpopration being allowed to disregard laws that the small businesses have to abide by.

The third option is for Amazon to fire the people the have in Virginia and/or move them somewhere else and then they get to keep their 5% advantage.

.....of this question will be that Virginians will have to pay more money. Either by paying sales tax on Amazon or by paying higher prices for goods and more taxes to the state. The cost to Amazon in lost business will be minimal as the products they supply are not all available locally unless one drives far and wide, wasting time and fuel; the taxes will just be passed on to us. What most people don't think about is that Amazon and Ebay, etc. are not just large corporations but companies that support little tiny small business', sometimes run out of homes. So in this respect, hurting Amazon's business by imposing taxes to make the playing field more level will end up hurting small business. But again, who will pay for this...........we the people. In this time of economic downturn, "we the people" who buy things would like you to "give us a break".

This sounds like a case of someone being jealous of the competition having a better price. Does she voluntary pay taxes on items she buys online from vendors that dont collect?