ZDNet: Sm@rt Partner - E-commerce Tax Update The e-commerce taxation debate, hotly contested for the past two years,
may be losing some of its steam.

The potential turning point? Barnes & Noble last month revealed plans to
integrate its brick-and-mortar and online (BN.com) businesses. The move
marks the end of the bookseller's earlier strategy of maintaining separate
physical and electronic storefronts to free its cyber operation from having to
collect sales tax. Currently, remote sellers—including e-tailers—are not
compelled to collect sales tax in states in which they lack a significant
physical presence. Barnes & Noble's online isolation kept BN.com an
Internet-only play, keeping it on the same tax footing as Amazon.com.

Interestingly enough, "eBrands: building an Internet Business at breakneck Speed" (Library of Congress Number HD69.B7C37) talks specifically about Barnes and Nobles' need to integrate its internet and brick and mortar brands to compete successfully. A book of Harvard Business School case studies, I think it's flawed. It overemphasizes the stock value of companies. All of the studies were done before the bottom fell out of the market.