Larry's beliefs are a nice ideal, but they aren't the reality.
In the US, if a company has presence ("nexus" is the word the lawyers like to
use) in any state, it is responsible for remitting sales tax on sales to
customers in that state and permitted to collect the sales tax from the
customer instead of paying itself. Nexus is defined very loosely: if you
have a salesperson headquarted in that state, if your own trucks make
deliveries into that state (or go through that state on their way to others)
even if you sent that particular item by common carrier, if you have storage
in that state, if you advertise on billboards or in local newspapers in that
state, essentially if that state can find any excuse, you have nexus there
and must remit sales tax on sales in or into that state. And if you don't,
then the customer is responsible for paying use tax (though that's rarely
enforced unless the item is used in a business).
Apparently Mercata believes it has nexus in Pennsylvania but not in New Mexi-
co, so they want sales tax from Larry but not from Aaron. One music publisher
charges me Illinois sales tax if I buy their products from one of their sub-
sidiaries but not if I buy them from another.
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