We recently invited our Facebook fans to ask eBay Inc.\'s Brian Bieron their questions about Internet sales tax legislation. We thank Catherine Allen for posting the first question and below is Brian\'s answer.  Join the discussion on Facebook and we\'ll continue answering all of your questions.

Question from Catherine Allen:

Some states have already joined this sales tax initiative, including my home state of Washington. The burden to pay state sales tax is compounded because ebay does not allow me to input more than one tax rate for the state. I currently have to collect and pay tax based on where my buyer resides not my business address. My paperwork is ridiculous when I report and pay this.

Aside for fighting against this initiative (which I applaud) what is ebay doing to make it easier for merchants to correctly collect this state sales tax. Right now, I collect the lowest rate and pay the difference myself.

What say you ebay.. are you ready for supporting sellers in the event we don\'t win this fight?

Answer from eBay\'s Brian Bieron:

First and foremost, we are committed to "winning" and protecting small business sellers from new tax collection mandates that will make it harder for entrepreneurial small retailers to compete with giant retailers. We believe that a mobilized seller community is key to that effort and we appreciate your help.

At the same time, if the law is changed, I am confident that eBay will be fully committed to helping sellers meet their responsibilities to the greatest degree possible. I would add, given your frustrations with the complexity of your own state\'s sales tax requirements, that eBay is working to add a premium sales tax calculator to its checkout system, which was recently described here:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/Tax2010.html