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VentureBeat had a report recently on state efforts to collect sales taxes on e-commerce. Laws have been proposed, passed, signed, vetoed and in some cases abandoned in New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Hawaii, California, Maryland, Minnesota, and Tennessee.

Not long ago the idea of taxing e-commerce was unthinkable. After all, e-Commerce was good for the economy. It was a small but growing section of the economy and taxing it might just bring an end to e-commerce. Right?

In retrospect, that position now seems laughable. E-Commerce has become a runaway train and it's a large enough and stable enough chunk of the economy that sooner or later it's going to be brought under the umbrella of the tax system. At least, that's my prediction.

At the moment, states and e-Commerce giants like Amazon are playing chicken. And at the moment the states are getting the short end of it. Read about it here.