Fifty years ago, our grandparents could order a new washing machine from Sears. When it showed up, the price would include Mississippi sales tax.

Today, we can order a pair of jeans from a boutique in California (that might cost more than the washer did back when) and no sales tax will be charged.

What’s changed? Nothing in the law. State tax is owed on those jeans. Not that it ever happens, but the buyer is supposed to calculate the amount due and voluntarily mail a check to the state Tax Commission.

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.

What was known as “mail order” is now known as “e-commerce.”

The rule has been that any seller of goods who does not have a physical presence in a state cannot be forced to collect taxes on sales to residents of that state.

And it really hasn’t been worth trying.

For example, a McComb resident who buys a sofa at a New Orleans store and hauls it back to Mississippi will pay the Louisiana sales tax, but will not pay the 7 percent Mississippi sales tax. Similarly, a Pine Bluff, Ark., resident who buys a sofa in Greenville, will not pay the Arkansas sales tax, but will contribute 7 percent of the price to the greater good of Mississippi.

It all kind of balances out, at least on the small stuff.

Cars, of course, are not small stuff. Many years ago, the state Tax Commission realized the revenue forgone when Mississippians bought vehicles out-of-state was too much to pass up. Initially, lots of Mississippians buying vehicles in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama or Tennessee were somewhat surprised when they went to buy their Mississippi tags. The levy is 5 percent on new or used cars these days, so a “great deal” on a $30,000 sedan would seem a little less great when the $1,500 sales tax was added to the tag price in the county tax collector’s office.

After a while, this got worked out. People can still shop for cars out-of-state and, after completing residency forms, can avoid other states’ sales taxes or get a rebate. But they’ll pay in Mississippi just as if they’d made the purchase in their hometown.

The key to the state being able to enforce the tax on cars (and on boats, mobile homes and other big purchases) has been a mechanism. When a purchase must be registered with the state, the tax man can intervene.

It’s when the state has no contact with a seller or buyer that taxes can be and are increasingly avoided.

Increasingly? You bet.

Through 2007, a University of Tennessee study showed Mississippi had already lost out on $624 million in sales taxes on e-commerce and would miss out on another $462 million in 2008. Online holiday retail sales will grow 8 percent this year to $44.7 billion nationwide, predicts Forrester Research. No doubt Mississippi is losing about $500 million this year — or about 7 percent of all sales taxes legally due.

An interesting aspect of that number is that it’s approximately equal to the amount the state budget is predicted to fall short by the end of June.

Now there’s nothing the Legislature in Mississippi or any other state can do about this. Internet sellers such as Sears and Walmart and others who also have actual stores in the state impose the tax on their e-commerce sales to Mississippians and forward the amounts collected. A few other e-vendors voluntarily collect and remit state taxes.

Others do not and only Congress can change that.

Almost 10 years ago, the Streamlined Sales Tax Project was initiated. Through it, all sellers of goods and taxable services across state lines would collect sales taxes due according to the delivery address of the customer and parse the taxes out appropriately. Almost every state has endorsed this effort. As mentioned, Mississippi already considers e-commerce taxable.

Just a few months ago, there was a flurry of speculation that Congress was ready to act.

But it hasn’t.

The reasons are that creating a mechanism to collect the money sounds like a new tax or an infringement on Internet freedom.

It’s not a new tax, seeing how our grandparents paid it and all. And the only infringement is on an Internet shopper’s ability to avoid taxes legally due.

Save for another day arguments about whether states really need the money, whether government is wasteful and such.

For now, just realize members of Congress are fully aware that states are being shortchanged and are choosing not to do anything about it.