"A bipartisan coalition in the Senate easily passed legislation Monday to force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes..."

"... for state and local governments, sending the issue to the House, where antitax forces have vowed to kill it."

But the 69-to-27 vote in the Senate will give the measure significant momentum....

The Internet sales tax bill – dubbed the Marketplace Fairness Act – is a rarity in Washington these days, a significant tax measure that has split antitax groups in Washington from reliably Republican Main Street businesses outside the capital....

The legislation would allow states to force online retailers with more than $1 million in annual sales to collect sales taxes from all customers and remit those taxes back to state and local governments. States would have to provide software to help calculate the taxes for thousands of jurisdictions....

The Senate Internet tax debate revolved around advocates’ arguments that applying sales taxes online is only fair, since traditional brick-and-mortar retailers must levy such taxes already. Supporters said the bill was not a tax increase but a guarantee that taxes already owed would actually be paid....

We've already been talking about this tax over in today's Amazon thread.