Economist: Florida is Losing Millions in Online Sales Taxes
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
By: Tom Parkinson

Oct. 04, 2011 | WMFE - Last week, Orange County reached a multimillion-dollar settlement in a five year old lawsuit against online hotel booking company, Expedia, over how much it should pay in hotel taxes. The county still has a suit in the works against Orbitz, another of the big online hotel booking companies. The lawsuits over online hotel room booking opens for discussion the entire issue of the fairness of taxes on web based sales.

90.7’s Tom Parkinson ask economic analyst Hank Fishkind about the details of the Expedia settlement with Orange County.
The dispute, he says, is not about whether the online booking companies pay a bed tax, rather it centers on whether they must pay tax on the retail or wholesale price of the rooms.