By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff

With the economy stalled and tax receipts shrinking, state governments are making another run at federal legislation that would allow them to impose levies on out-of-state Internet and catalog sales, which they say could bring in about $13 billion a year.

The big hurdles, though, are the multiplicity of sales tax systems and the strong reluctance of Congress to meddle with Internet commerce.

The Supreme Court set the high bar in a 1992 ruling that reinforced a principle, set in 1967, that with so many state tax regimes it’s unfair to require a mail-order (and by extension an Internet-based) business to collect sales taxes from a customer unless the business has a physical presence in the state. States can get their hands on this revenue only if Congress grants the authority, the high court wrote, and it recommended that step only if the states standardize their sales tax laws.

That ruling gave rise nine years ago to the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, an effort by what is now 22 states to meet the court’s standard and persuade Congress to act. Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming are expected to introduce legislation soon, and states hope their dismal revenue outlook will help get it enacted.

“This could qualify as a son of stimulus,” says John Doyle, a Democrat in West Virginia’s House of Delegates, who is president of the streamlining project. “This is something the federal government can do for the states that wouldn’t cost the federal Treasury a penny.”

Brick-and-mortar retailers generally support the idea of taxing Internet sales as a playing-field leveler. But Internet companies have lobbied hard against it, saying it could hamstring online commerce and that states are far from having uniform tax plans. Companies including eBay Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. have formed their own coalition, called NetChoice.

Indeed, states in the streamlining project haven’t agreed to all charge the same rates, but they have reached accords on which goods should be subject to sales tax. Their agreement would solve the so-called Twix dilemma, named for the way some states tax Twix bars as candy, and others exempt it as food. Under the agreement, because Twix is made with flour, it will be considered food and be exempt from tax in most states.

NetChoice is gearing up for a fight with the states. "They are trying to hurry and get Congress to bless their effort before it becomes too obvious that they don't intend to simplify their tax systems," says Steve DelBianco, the coalition's executive director.