American States won't see internet tax

America's state governments won't see many revenue gains any time soon if they triumph in battles to tax sales by out-of-state Internet retailers, a leading Wall Street credit-ratings group said on Monday.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that state governments were increasingly targeting Internet sales outside their borders but still faced legal hurdles and were unlikely to see much top-line benefit soon.

"At this time, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services does not think that the amount of revenue states are foregoing by not collecting tax on Internet sales is significant enough to influence state or local ratings," S&P analyst David Hitchcock said in a report. "Nevertheless, Internet commerce is growing faster than overall retail sales, and if trends continue the loss of tax revenue could become significant."

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