Do You Support a Sales Tax for Online Purchases?

It's called the "Marketplace Fairness Act" and supporters say it levels the playing field between online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores by requiring online merchants to pay sales taxes to the states, counties and localities where they have done business.

Opponents include anti-tax activists and retailers who say it will be overly burdensome—in fact, nearly impossible, they say, to keep track of the tax rates and tax requirements for the myriad of taxing agencies where they may be doing business.

The Marketplace Fairness Act passed the U.S. Senate 69-27 on Monday. Next up, the legislation goes to the GOP-led House. President Barack Obama has previously said he supports the bill.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, voted for the measure, although she has not issued a statement about the vote on her website. Some constituents pleaded on her Facebook page for her to oppose the measure.

The tax "is nothing more than yet another government money-grab that will steal more of my hard-earned cash and hurt businesses through burdensome regulations and requirements," wrote one. Another said: "I believe it would be ruinous."

Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt also voted for the measure.

"This bill will help to level the playing field for Main Street retailers in Missouri and across America," he said in a statement. "It does not create a new tax – it simply allows states to collect sales taxes they are already owed from out-of-state and online businesses, if they choose to do so."

Do you believe this "levels the playing field"? Or does it make doing business online profoundly more difficult if merchants must set up systems to comply with the requirements of a web of taxing bodies?

OTHER RECENT CONVERSATION STARTERS

• Blame the Victim? Do We Encourage Burglaries?
• Feeling the Pinch of Prom Season? You're Not Alone
• Privacy or Law Enforcement? Release of Concealed Weapon Permit Names
• Would a No-Texting-and-Driving Law Stop You?