Moby Lives alerted me to the existence of this Forbes editorial that was published over the weekend:

Are Amazon.com’s days as a haven for sales-tax shirking shoppers numbered?

Retail analyst David Strasser, a managing director at Janney Montgomery Scott, suggests that they could be. “There’s a lot of momentum building,’’ he said Friday. “(Amazon founder) Jeff Bezos has built a company strategically around avoiding sales tax. But they’re going to have to deal with this,” he added.

Wait a minute. Hasn’t Amazon successfully fended off pesky state tax collectors for 16 glorious years? Yes, but the battle has entered a new stage as Amazon builds warehouse/fulfillment centers in more locations, states grow hungrier for revenue, and a rising sales tax rate (it now averages 9.64% nationwide) puts retailers who do collect tax at an ever bigger disadvantage.

The pressure is building on Amazon.com nationwide, and for good reason: The lack of sales tax on internet sales was an important part of internet retail growth, but now that it's become an essential part of our lives, it's time for online retailers to start paying their fair share.