Ariz. bill OK’d to drop tax reporting requirement

Gov. Jan Brewer will get a bill to have Arizona retreat on trying to make it harder to skip paying sales tax on online purchases.

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill repealing a year-old requirement that state income tax returns report and pay what’s formally known as use tax.

The bill already approved by the House doesn’t repeal the obligation to pay tax owed. But it does repeal the requirement that it be reported on income tax returns.

Some people had said the reporting requirement was burdensome because they didn’t track whether sales tax was collected for online purchases.

The reporting requirement was on the income tax form used for 2011 taxes. The repeal takes effect with 2012 so the line won’t be on returns filed next spring.