TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Deals abound on Cyber Money -- the Black Friday of Internet shopping -- with merchants trying to get you to part with your hard-earned cash. But when you purchase something online, you may be breaking the law if you don't voluntarily pay the sales tax.
More than $2.5 billion is expected to be spent in online purchases on Monday. And while most big-box retailers collect sales tax because they have stores in the state, many Internet-only retailers don't -- they leave it up to the residents of the state to fill out a Form DR15MO and remit the sales tax.
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Few people do. Most people don't even know the tax is due.
Rob Weissert, from Florida TaxWatch, said the state is losing big time.
"It can cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, but more importantly, it can cost the state jobs and investment," Weissert said.
Earlier this year Amazon began collecting sales taxes on Florida purchases after it opened two distribution centers in the state. The tax collected for the first year is expected to hit close to $100 million.