Facing a $2 billion hole in the state budget, legislators have the opportunity to nearly close the gap and bring fairness to all retailers wanting to do business in Florida.

The so-called e-tax would simply require that online sellers like Amazon collect the state’s 6 percent sales tax on goods they sell on the Internet to Florida buyers and send that money to Tallahassee. Out-of-state companies like the Seattle-based Amazon with no warehouses or stores in Florida are getting a break and having an unfair advantage on Florida companies that employ Florida workers.

Close that loophole, legislators.

Yes, state law already requires residents to pay the sales tax on anything purchased on the Internet, but few people know about it, and, besides, it’s cumbersome to do. Write a check for 60 cents on a $10 purchase? Who would? Yet those pennies add up. In fact, Florida is projected to lose more than $1.4 billion in 2012 because of the Internet sales loophole.

To call this a “backdoor tax” or “discriminatory,” as some buyers of Internet-sold goods claim, is not accurate. What’s unfair and discriminatory is the backdoor loophole that online companies have enjoyed for more than a decade while Florida stores that do what’s required of them are losing business to these Internet carpetbaggers.