In the United States, the taxation of retail sales is a state matter. The tax paid on any given mail-order transaction can vary from O% to more than 8%, depending on the domicile of both buyer and seller. An examination of the legal status of collecting use taxes on mail-order sales, including efforts to legislate a degree of uniformity in enforcement, shows that a high degree of variability in the actual rates applied will persist. Thus, unlike the alleged incidence of the general sales tax, the tax on mail-order sales is, and will remain, incompletely shifted to the ultimate consumer. The effects on the structure of aggregate consumption, the mail-order industry, and retailing in general are discussed.
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