MichiganRadio

State Continues to Lose Out on Online Taxes DETROIT (Michigan Radio) - State treasury officials are reminding online shoppers to pay taxes on their purchases when they file their income tax returns.

Terry Stanton is a spokesman for the Treasury Department. He says a handful of Internet merchants collect taxes on behalf of the state - but the vast majority do not.

"So if they don't, then you as the purchaser are responsible for remitting whatever amount of sales tax - or use tax - you might owe to the state," said Stanton. "So it's important through the holiday season, certainly, to keep your receipts and make sure it's clear which purchases have been taxed, and which haven't."

Stanton says Michigan will lose out on about $300 million in tax revenues this year. Online merchants are not required to collect taxes on behalf of states. That's in part because sales taxes policies differ so much from state to state.

But several states, including Michigan, have been working for years on a uniform policy so that online sellers could be required to collect the taxes.

Contact Sarah Hulett at sarahhu@umich.edu
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