LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: NATIONAL SALES TAX SOLVES TAX DILEMMA

To the Editor,

For years, states have been trying to devise means of recovering potential sales tax revenue that is falling through the cracks on out-of-state purchases. The latest effort by the Missouri Department of Revenue to include an Individual Consumer's Use Tax return in the State income tax package is another such exercise in futility. Certainly, every fair-minded citizen should want to pay sales tax, where due.

Administratively, the only way to collect sales tax on all sales is through a national sales tax with rebate to the respective states. However, given the "anti-big government" and "anti-tax" syndrome in our society, this remains a virtual political impossibility.

GIL DEGENHARDT

Cape Girardeau