I never said the retailer owed taxes to the state. And as I said, taxing online sales is a currently hot issue and relying on voluntary compliance of consumers isn't going to cut it and every state knows that. This is completely irrelevant anyway, I reject any assertion that failing to pay taxes due (often out of ignorance) on internet purchases is in any way comparable to deceiving your employer and co-workers by lying (on purpose) about your resume to gain social status.

You're rationalizing. It's tax evasion, a crime, regardless of ignorance. Many states have a simple online form for it. That it's voluntary doesn't make a difference; paying property taxes is also voluntary for people who own their homes. These facts are highly relevant: when you're a tax scofflaw it's best not to point fingers at those merely lying.

People who own their homes don't have mortgages. They pay their property taxes on their own initiative, the same as the honest people paying their use taxes.

You've stated your opinion about morality all right. You think it's okay to be a scofflaw (definition: "a person who flouts the law, esp. by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively"), even for tax evasion. Yet you'd look down your nose at someone lying to make ends meet. Tsk tsk!

Even lying to raise social status and get ahead is better than cheating on your taxes, according to the law.

Law and morals are vastly different things; sad that you confuse the two.

It's the opposite. Obama, the chief enforcer of laws in our country, said "Our law is by definition a codification of morality." Lying is legal when society deems the lies to be acceptable or not wrong enough. Tax evasion, however, is considered to be morally wrong by society, hence it's illegal.

Still grasping at straws I see, now it's argument from authority, any more fallacies you want to throw out. Laws are not morals, illegal does not mean immoral nor does legal mean moral and I don't care who you quote, you're wrong and they're wrong.