Posted on 07/30/2011 7:07:30 AM PDT by bobsunshine
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will introduce a bill on Friday to allow states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes.
The measure has the support of online giant Amazon.
Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Jack Reed (D- R.I.) will co-sponsor the bill, titled the Main Street Fairness Act. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will introduce a companion bill in the House.
Supporters of the bill argue it will close a loophole that allows online purchases to go untaxed, giving an advantage to online retailers over traditional, brick-and-mortar stores.
“Our bill levels the playing field to give Main Street businesses a fighting chance,” Welch said. “When a consumer can walk into a store, try out a product and then go home and buy it online without paying sales tax, Main Street businesses and downtowns lose."
The retail trade groups National Retail Federation, International Council of Shopping Centers and Retail Industry Leaders Association support the measure.
The lawmakers argue the bill will allow state and local governments to collect more taxes and close budget shortfalls.
“Between 2009 and 2012, states across the country, including Illinois, are expected to lose as much as $37 billion in uncollected state and local taxes on internet and catalogue sales,” Durbin said in a statement. “The Main Street Fairness Act doesn’t ask anyone to pay a single penny more in taxes. Instead, it would help governors and mayors collect taxes that are already owed.”
Amazon opposed a California online sales tax law and is leading the effort to overturn it. The online retailer, however, supports Durbin’s bill, arguing a nationwide system of sales tax collection is preferable to a patchwork of laws.
“Amazon.com has long supported a simple, nationwide system of state and local sales tax collection, evenhandedly applied to all sellers, no matter their business model, location, or level of remote sale,” said Paul Misen, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group, opposes the bill.
“E-commerce has enabled businesses to broaden the scope of their activities beyond traditional geographic limitations," said Ed Black, president of CCIA. "Sadly, this bill seeks to reimpose onto e-commerce businesses the very burdens that innovation has enabled them to overcome and has given them a chance for success."
Online auction site eBay also released a statement Friday bashing Durbin's proposal.
“The giant retailers jockeying for new Internet sales taxes have national store networks that they combine with their major online sales platforms, a business model they know brings some tax collection duties," said Brian Bieron, director of government relations at eBay.
"Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business retailers on the Internet.”
Just More Taxes !!! Too bad they don't care about the average American. Something like this tax will hit the lower income the hardest - more taxes more jobs lost!!!
I noticed that they leave out the point that you have to pay for shipping for the majority of your online purchases.
By the time you add the shipping cost on, it will cost more to buy online.
It doesn’t matter what tax is levied; every tax dollar, no matter what specifically is taxed, harms the economy by removing that dollar from the discretion of the previous owner of that dollar. The specifics are irrelevant, except for it’s ability to give the gov’t apparent sense of “fairness”
Oh. Right. If there’s one thing RATS are for, it’s for Main Street.
It’s stupid to do this. But even more stupid to do it in a depression.
A loophole???
Isn't it The Constitution that prohibits one state from taxing the residents of another state?
An increase in tax bill? Done by Democrats? Surely you jest!
/sarc
Here in Ohio we have a line on our state tax form to report untaxed purchases. My accountant said that I am only one of a handful of clients that report taxes due.
TRAITOR
DOA in the House.
doubt if the house will pass it.
Since when did liberals let that get in their way?
Typical dimocrat, always looking for more ways to tax.
Of course the playing field should be leveled and they could do that by ABOLISHING the taxes that are charged in the ‘brick & mortar’ counterparts.
Rats are Tax Junkies.
Or as former Vacuumer Of The House Nanzi Pelosi put it, "Are you serious? The Constitution? You expect us to....The Consti.....bwa ha ha haaaaaaa....you flyover people......"
Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) is an idiot. The reason internet sales are big in states like SD is because for 80% of the state it is the only way of getting certain items (especially if you are a ‘foodie’).
From what I see every day, if they can get the item, many (if not most) buy local (even if it costs a bit more) because they are helping their friends and people in the community and that is a big part of the rural plains states.
But it is impossible to get Hungarian paprika, saffron, Thai basil or certain Asian noodles (just a few examples) without driving 250 miles. That is where online shopping comes in handy. Books are another problem, sadly.
The whole “Main Street Fairness Act” is just a naming ploy for more taxes. The dims don’t ca
Why would Amazon be agreeable to this?
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