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Letter to the editor by Dana Eness and David Guidry:

Consumers are drawn to the convenience and savings that tax-free online shopping provides, but don’t realize that they pay for it in significant ways.

First, their community loses needed tax revenue to fund public services including police protection, healthcare, and schools. Uncollected sales taxes on e-commerce cost Louisiana an estimated $269 million in 2008; those losses will rise to $396 million by 2012.

Second, it puts bricks-and-mortar businesses at a competitive disadvantage equal to the sales tax. In Orleans Parish that is a near 10 percent disadvantage.

Louisiana needs to level the playing field for all retailers. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a multi-state initiative to align sales tax policies and make it easier for states to collect sales taxes from all retailers with more than $5 million in annual sales. Of the 45 states that have a sales tax, all but four have signed on. Louisiana has not.

As we work to convince Louisiana lawmakers that our local businesses deserve fair tax enforcement, we must remember that the money we “save” by shopping online is in fact no savings at all, but a drain on our region’s ability to create jobs, generate wealth, educate our children and provide essential services.

Dana Eness
Executive Director
The Urban Conservancy
New Orleans

David Guidry
Owner
Lakeside Camera