Online shoe company Zeppos.com chief executive Tony Hseih forgets The Forgotten Taxpayer and his own customers when he fails to argue against the imposition of sales tax on his business because it is adverse to his customer’s interest, to the interest of The Forgotten Taxpayer and to public interest of the economy of the country. This narrow view of business interests, mostly typified by the Chamber of Commerce but many other as well, is why I say that Big Business ( $40 million gross is big to me) is not the friend of The Forgotten Taxpayer.

taxgirl does a daily blog relating to …taxes and it is very interesting. She comments on specific questions and then on an overview. Here she interviews Tony Hseih (pronounce ‘shay’) on the imposition of sales tax to online sales in New York and, by extrapolation, in Pennsylvania and other states.

Hsieh: I think it’ll be at least 10 years out before we get there. Many states are already looking to raise revenue by taxing online sales. We’re not really concerned at Zappos either way, as long as the rules are easy for every online company to follow and are applied equally to every online business.

Mr. Hseih notes the obvious, though: Hsieh: I think if the money saved from eliminating taxes enables corporations to spend more money on hiring and training people, it definitely has the potential to help the economy turn around.

What I imagine The Forgotten Taxpayer, who might well be a customer or potential taxpayer of Zeppos.com shoes is that Mr. Hseih will not see his interest affected by imposition of sales tax to online sales although he does see the impact on his customers and on the economy and I hear that Mr. Hseih will not use company resources, its advertising and public relations, to advocate against a sales tax as having an adverse impact on its customers who have to pay more and, therefore, could buy less and I would think even Mr. Hseih would understand the customer would buy less, having less money to spend because government took it