Internet Sales Taxes

* Thanks for introducing us to Harley Duncan, executive director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, who thinks the five-year ban on Internet sales taxes by a House committee “is hasty and unnecessary” (May 5). If I wish to purchase something for my bar from a Midwest supplier I found on the Internet, why should the town of Morro Bay collect a sales tax? Is the Morro Bay Fire Department protecting my supplier? Paving his street?

I haven’t bought anything on the Web yet, but I did hang new Sheetrock in my bar ceiling three year ago. The Morro Bay Fire Department mandated that I install sprinklers throughout our 5,077-square-foot building, even though the bar capacity is only 45 people. My cost: over $20,000. That makes less work for the fire department.

Let’s rewrite the tax code before Duncan has his way and adds more.

PATRICK O’DANIELS

Morro Bay