There is such software available - TaxJar & Avalara to name 2. Guess what? They're expensive! The States' argument that they can't enforce their existing "Use Tax" laws against their own, already-obligated citizens falls on deaf ears when they gleefully are passing on the collection responsibility and COST to small businesses. If THEY can't afford to collect, why do them presume the internet merchant can?
Big on-line sellers like Amazon won't be affected in the least. Small on-line sellers will get killed. It isn't the small guys that are killing brick-and-mortar. Strengthening Amazon isn't going to save brick-and-mortar.
10 cents per transaction. That does not including filing to the 50 states, probably quarterly.
The internet merchant can collect, probably very easily. It’s just a table of tax rates based on customer zip codes. What is not easy is reporting and remittance. That is much more difficult.
I agree this will do nothing to help B&M businesses. It is a response from a state that has little online presence and light population to recoup lost revenue by its residents who are using out of state online sellers in lieu of in-state B&M - which I would guess is largely due to convenience. Imagine the distance many ND residents are driving in a given year for items most other state residents consider routine.
I don’t think it was a good decision but my original point was that there could be/should be competitively priced software options to collect the tax at the point of sale - absolving the merchant of any additional responsibility. Credit Card merchants should handle it and rake the tax off the top. Let the merchants focus on their business and absolve them of all responsibility to collect the tax and report/file the returns.