On Friday, the giant online retailer Amazon announced that it will start collecting sales tax on purchases by Nebraskans, a move that could put tens of millions of new tax dollars into state coffers.

State Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton labeled the announcement a big deal because Amazon, like several other online retailers outside the state, has not been collecting sales tax on orders from the Cornhusker State, even though buyers are supposed to report and remit the tax.

But buyers almost never do. Only about 1 percent of Nebraskans report out-of-state Internet purchases on their state income tax forms.

Fulton called Amazon’s move “a good example of responsible corporate citizenship.”

“The tax is owed. So their announcement will just help Nebraskans to comply with the existing law,” he said.

The announcement comes about three weeks after Amazon announced that it would begin collecting sales taxes on purchases from Iowans, and comes amid a renewed push by states to collect taxes on Internet purchases.

Under current law, Internet retailers are not required to collect sales tax on purchases from a state unless they have a physical presence in that state, such as a retail store or warehouse.

The policy annoys bricks-and-mortar retailers across the country, who say it creates unfair competition because they must collect sales taxes at the cash register while online and mail-order retailers do not.

“Let’s be fair. A sale is a sale. It’s a fairness issue,” said Tom Wright of Lincoln, a jewelry store owner who has traveled to Washington, D.C., several times to lobby for a change in tax policy.

The Nebraska Retail Federation announced recently that it would be seeking passage of a bill in the State Legislature to require online retailers such as Amazon to collect local sales taxes.

Jim Otto, president of the retail federation, said the proposal would combine aspects of laws recently passed in the states of South Dakota and Colorado to force retailers to collect or at least report sales in those states.

He emphasized that while Amazon is an online retailing giant, its sales represent only a portion of the online sales made by Nebraskans, perhaps 20 percent or so.

“It’s good news, but it’s not the total solution,” Otto said.

State Sen. Dan Watermeier of Syracuse said Friday that he has agreed to introduce the bill on behalf of the retailers. The senator said he’s amazed at the number of people who tell him they don’t owe taxes on Internet purchases.

Watermeier added that requiring people, and companies, to remit taxes on Internet purchases is not a “tax increase” as some conservative groups have argued.

“They already owe the tax,” he said.

Currently Amazon’s website lists 29 states and the District of Columbia to which it remits sales taxes. Collections in both Iowa and Nebraska are scheduled to begin on Jan. 1.

Past estimates of the lost tax revenue for Nebraska from the nonreporting of all Internet sales have ranged from $45 million a year to $118 million a year.

Amazon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A 2015 report called “Amazon and Empty Storefronts,” done for the American Booksellers Association, estimated that requiring Amazon to collect sales tax on its Nebraska sales would generate an additional $18 million a year.

Fulton, the state tax commissioner, said he would be seeking a new estimate from his department on the extent of the new revenue expected.

The news from Amazon comes as Nebraska lawmakers are poised to grapple, in the 2017 session, with a $900 million gap between projected spending and tax revenue by either cutting spending or raising taxes and fees.

Watermeier said his bill would channel any new tax revenue into the general fund, where it could be spent by state agencies or used for tax decreases.

paul.hammel@owh.com, 402-473-9584