Amazon.com will begin collecting sales tax in North Carolina beginning Feb. 1, a company official confirmed Monday.
The move will make North Carolina the 20th state in which the online retailer collects sales tax.
Under the current system, North Carolina taxpayers are supposed to pay a "use tax" Price Compare online purchases and declare them on their state tax returns. Few do. One 2010 estimate said failure to pay the taxes costs the state, its cities and counties $190 million a year in lost revenue.
In 2010, the N.C. Department of Revenue tried to get Amazon to turn over customer names so that the state could charge those customers sales tax for their online purchases. But the ACLU, a nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, sued.
The organization argued that the request was illegal because it would have linked customers to items they purchased, revealing the names of books, DVDs and other products. A federal judge agreed and earlier this year, the state settled with the ACLU.
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