[cemerick]

I had honestly never considered such a notion. Considering hard goods for a moment: when I order something from a foreign merchant, I sometimes need to pay import duty. I suppose this line of thinking would have the U.S. collecting the same duty from me as well as levying a tax on the merchant for the privilege of having me delivered as an educated, well-heeled-enough customer?

There aren't (generally!) duties on "imports" of intangible products and services worldwide, but the hard good example makes the notion sound even more absurd. This all reminds me of the crazy "Amazon" rules U.S. states have been setting so as to define affiliates as nexuses for sales tax purposes.