Mississippi’s new revenue commissioner is fixing a problem the state’s lawmakers have long failed to address.
Herb Frierson, who a year ago was a legislative budget leader, has worked out a voluntary arrangement with Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, to start collecting and remitting sales tax to the state. When this becomes effective Feb. 1, Mississippi will be at least the 32nd state where Amazon collects sales tax.
Frierson’s effort to address the fiscal imbalance created by the ongoing shift to online shopping won’t stop there. He has an administrative rule pending to require all companies with more than $250,000 annually in sales in Mississippi to collect sales tax.
This is big money. On Amazon collections alone, the estimate is between $15 million and $30 million a year. It will level the playing field between online retailers and brick-and-mortar ones, ending what has been a built-in 7 percent advantage for those doing business on the web.
