A Senate committee today approved the House-passed bill to require Internet merchants to compile and provide customers with records of their purchases in Arkansas and the sales taxes due even if they don't have physical presences here.
Sen. Jake Files, with other co-sponsors, filed his legislation today that is aimed at collecting sales taxes from "remote" sellers — in other words sales by Internet from companies with no physical presence in Arkansas.
Little Rock thinks its lagging sales tax revenues are the fault of loss of commerce to Internet sales, which are generally untaxed. That's no doubt a factor. But it may not be the only one.
The president of the Arkansas Restaurant Association says there is a way to make sure a sales tax is collected from on-line retailers, most recently adopted in Louisiaa. He's working on the idea in Arkansas.
Cnet reports on efforts by police to use information from an Amazon Echo smart speaker — which responds to voice commands — to prosecute a murder case against a Bentonville man.