Ohio collects some $7.7 billion in sales taxes each year. But hundreds of millions of other dollars get away each year, and there’s a growing state and national call to change that. 

The Marketplace Fairness Act in the U.S. Senate and its counterpart in the House would reverse a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that  says states cannot force businesses to collect sales taxes unless that business actually has a store in that state.

Max Behlke of the National Conference of State Legislatures maintains that  taxes on out-of-state purchases should not be viewed as new.

 “Members of Congress who were against it before are realizing that this is not a new tax, it is owed to states, they should be able to collect it and it can do a lot especially [if] states are looking to lose even more money in federal funds.”

If federal law changes, Ohio tax code won’t have to. That’s because the state already is one of 24 who have signed the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement.

Phyllis Shambaugh of the Ohio Department of Taxation says some out-of-state businesses voluntarily register under the agreement and already collect sales taxes for Ohio.

“Over the last three years it has resulted in about $30 million a year in revenue that we wouldn’t have gotten if it weren’t for streamlined membership,” Shambaugh says.

This is not the first time lawmakers have proposed federal laws allowing the states to collect the sales taxes. But Behlke says this proposal is expected to go further because of the proliferation on on-line shopping. It even has the support of Amazon, one of the biggest on-line retailers.