Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has signed on to an effort that would allow states to collect sales taxes from internet retailers that do not have physical presences within their borders.

South Dakota legislators passed a law last year requiring collection a tax from online retailers, but it was struck down by the State Supreme Court. South Dakota is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, with Marshall and Attorneys General from 34 other states and the District of Columbia filing a friend-of-the-court brief for the sales tax collection efforts.

Current law says a business must be physically present in a state before it is required to collect and remit sales taxes. That law is outdated, the states' filing said.

"The problem with the physical-presence rule is that it was first conceived of in 1967, two years before the moon landing and decades before the first retail transaction occurred over the internet," the filing notes. "Today, remote retailers...effectively receive a subsidy because of how unlikely it is their customers will ever pay state sales and use taxes that they undeniably owe."

The result, the filing said, is the loss of "billions of dollars in tax revenue."

A 2015 estimate put the total loss to states at some $26 billion.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not commented on if it will hear the case, though at least two justices have signaled a willingness to address the issue.

Alabama collects some online sales taxes

Some online retailers- including Amazon - have voluntarily agreed to collect state sales taxes.

In Alabama, 85 retailers with no stores or physical presence in the state have signed up for the Simplified Sellers Use Tax Program, a flat-tax effort designed to simplify tax processing for retailers and capture revenue that would otherwise by lost by the state.

The participating companies collect an 8 percent consumer use tax on sales to Alabama customers and send it to the state. Alabama officials estimated the tax will bring in about $40 million a year.