As Amazon.com (AMZN) and other e-tailers await congressional efforts to create a uniform sales tax for online purchases, Web travel firms like Priceline.com are fending off similar tax moves at the state level.
Some hoteliers and local politicians have been prodding their statehouses to pass laws that would make online travel agencies liable for full sales and occupancy taxes on the rooms they sell. This is the practice now in only a few states and localities.
None of this year's efforts have moved beyond the proposal stage. Some say this is because new taxes on business are a touchy issue in a presidential election year.
Maryland, Oregon, Utah and Virginia have decided not to enact such a tax this year.
Priceline (PCLN) and other Web travel agencies argue that they're not hotels and should be exempt from paying the same taxes as hotels.
Many hotel groups disagree, and will keep beating the drum for these taxes, observers say.
Hotel owners say online travel agencies enjoy an unfair advantage because a portion of the payment they get for booking rooms for hotels, called a service fee, isn't subject to state occupancy and hotel taxes.
"(The bill) was assigned to a summer study committee where we intend to testify and educate legislators about the truth that (online travel siies) are ripping off local and state governments by not paying their fair share of occupancy and sales taxes," Adkins told IBD. Investor's Business Daily
