U.S. Senators Introduce Online Sales Tax Bill

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators wants to give states a way to require online retailers to collect sales taxes.

The group is led by Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. They announced Wednesday that they're introducing a bill that would allow states that adopt the same administrative procedure for collecting taxes to be able to require online sellers to collect taxes.

States that don't accept the national standard could still collect sales taxes but only if they agree to some minimum streamlining of their tax system.

Sellers will less than a half-million dollars in annual sales would be exempt.

Amazon says it strongly supports the bill. It has fought state laws forcing it to collect taxes, saying it preferred a federal solution.