The Washington Post is reporting that 40 states and the District of Columbia have banded together to build the technical infrastructure necessary to begin charging sales tax on internet transactions. From the article:

Working together under the auspices of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, 40 states and the District of Columbia have issued two requests for bids from technology companies to design the software and Web-based networks to track millions of online purchases and process the appropriate sales tax payments.

A request issued by the states last Friday seeks bids to build a registration system where all Internet retailers -- ranging from giants like Amazon.com to smaller companies -- would go to declare their intent to collect and remit taxes on online sales made to customers in the project's participating states.

The second request, issued last November, is aimed at making it easier for online retailers to collect sales taxes. The states plan to award contracts to multiple vendors who would provide sales tax collection systems to online retailers. As currently envisioned by the states, Web merchants would pay nothing for the services. Instead, the vendors would take a small cut from the revenues.

The National Governor's Association estimates that in fiscal year 2003, at least $15.1 billion worth of state sales taxes were lost through internet transactions.