Meeting in Charleston this week, about three-dozen delegates representing 22 states continued the arduous and often tedious task of simplifying and standardizing the states' sales tax codes in hopes of creating a nationwide system to collect taxes from Internet retailers.

On Thursday, Harley Duncan, director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, cited a University of Maryland study showing what's at stake.

According to the study, Internet commerce accounts for $150 billion to $160 billion in sales annually.

The top 500 Internet retailers - including national retail store chains and Internet sales giants such as Amazon.com - account for about $55 billion of those sales.

At the other end, the study said there are an estimated 5 million small entrepreneurs, sellers, and eBay-ers - those least likely to collect and remit sales taxes - who account for $60 billion in annual sales.

"That's a lot of money we're leaving on the table," said Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, who serves as one of West Virginia's delegates to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board.

"We're trying to come up with a set of standards that are simple enough and close enough to uniformity that the business community says, 'This is not difficult for us to comply with,' " said Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson.

Doyle is expected to be elected president of the board today, succeeding Kansas Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon, who chaired Thursday's session in the House of Delegates chambers.

Meeting in Charleston this week, about three-dozen delegates representing 22 states continued the arduous and often tedious task of simplifying and standardizing the states' sales tax codes in hopes of creating a nationwide system to collect taxes from Internet retailers.

On Thursday, Harley Duncan, director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, cited a University of Maryland study showing what's at stake.

According to the study, Internet commerce accounts for $150 billion to $160 billion in sales annually.

The top 500 Internet retailers - including national retail store chains and Internet sales giants such as Amazon.com - account for about $55 billion of those sales.

At the other end, the study said there are an estimated 5 million small entrepreneurs, sellers, and eBay-ers - those least likely to collect and remit sales taxes - who account for $60 billion in annual sales.

"That's a lot of money we're leaving on the table," said Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, who serves as one of West Virginia's delegates to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board.

"We're trying to come up with a set of standards that are simple enough and close enough to uniformity that the business community says, 'This is not difficult for us to comply with,' " said Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson.

Doyle is expected to be elected president of the board today, succeeding Kansas Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon, who chaired Thursday's session in the House of Delegates chambers.

In addition to the delegates, more than 100 registrants - including representatives of retailers such as Wal-Mart, Macy's, JC Penney, and Amazon.com - packed the chambers for Thursday's work session.

That session showed just how difficult and complicated it is to make sales tax laws roughly uniform in all 50 states.

For instance, Massachusetts Rep. Mark Falzone told the board his state wants to participate in the streamlined sales tax.

However, he said legislators are not willing to eliminate the state's sales tax exemption for purchases of items of clothing under $175 in order to bring their tax code into conformity.

"We feel strongly and passionately about our clothing threshold," he said.

Other discussions Thursday included standardizing definitions of products that could be considered school supplies for states that have back-to-school sales tax holidays.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 348-1220.