Teh One Who Knocks
11-09-2011, 11:06 PM
By Mark Hachman - PC Magazine
http://i.imgur.com/BHPbF.jpg
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, as expected, introduced a bill on Wednesday that provides states with the authority to collect online sales taxes, with exceptions for small businesses.
But while Amazon came out strongly in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, as the new bill is known, eBay continued its opposition, claiming that it did not adequately protect small businesses. The new bill was co-sponsored by Senators Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), plus a number of other Senate Democrats and Republicans.
Durbin also co-sponsored the Main Street Fairness Act, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance in July. A similar version of the bill in the House was also referred to committee in August. At press time, there was not a House version of the Marketplace Fairness Act.
"Most small business people don't want a government handout. They don't want special treatment," Durbin said in a statement. "They just want to be able to compete fairly against other businesses. That's why I have worked with Senators Enzi and Alexander to introduce the Marketplace Fairness Act – a bipartisan bill to level the playing field for local main street businesses."
Actually, the bill provides that smaller businesses do receive some special treatment. The bill authorizes a state to require a seller to collect sales taxes if the merchant's "total remote sales" are more than $500,000 on an annual basis. If they're less, the merchant earns an exemption.
The National Retail Federation, which represents large retailers such as Target or Walmart, also endorsed the bill. NRF executives called the $500,000 exemption "appropriate," and that it would work with whatever sales total Congress decided upon to push the bill through.
"We would be open to anything that gets the bill through," said David French, senior vice president for government relations for the NRF, in a conference call. "Politics is about the art of the possible, and I think the question will be one for the lawmakers" to decide, he said.
"Every day, brick-and-mortar retailers of all sizes do their duty to collect and remit sales taxes, putting them at a significant competitive disadvantage to online and catalogue retailers who continue to reap the benefits from an antiquated and unfair system," added David B. Henry, chairman of the International Council of Shopping Centers and president and CEO of Kimco Realty Corp. "It's time Congress took action to level the playing field, close this loophole, and help states and communities across the country,"
Battle lines drawn among Web firms
For years, consumers have been obligated to pay so-called "use" taxes on goods and services bought online, but rarely, if ever, have the taxes been enforced. That's eliminated hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, in state revenue. Amazon, the Web retailer that has benefited the most from selling products without charging sales tax, has said before that it supports a simplified method of collecting the tax.
"Amazon strongly supports enactment of the Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill and will work with Congress, retailers, and the states to get this bi-partisan legislation passed," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy. "It's a win-win resolution—and as analysts have noted, Amazon offers customers the best prices with or without sales tax."
All but five states collect sales tax, and the bill provides for two methods to authorize states to collect sales tax: either via the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement or by enacting certain simple requirements for collecting the use tax, which include a single state agency and providing software and services to remote sellers.
EBay, however, still opposes the bill, because the exemption level is "far below objective and established definitions of small business retailers," a company representative said in a statement.
The level in the bill is 60 times smaller than the U.S. Small Business Administration's existing size standard for small online retailers, 20 times smaller than the Treasury Department's recent proposal for a single small business standard for all small businesses, and 10 times small than the Small Business Exemption in Internet sales Tax bills from 2001-2008, the eBay representative said.
"This is another Internet sales tax bill that fails to protect small business retailers using the Internet and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors," said Tod Cohen, vice president for government relations and deputy general counsel at eBay, in a statement. "It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity."
The Computer & Communications Industry Association also opposed the bill. "Imposing tax collection burdens on small Internet businesses, which are some of the most promising candidates for future economic growth, would be unjustified, unfair and unwise," Ed Black, the CCIA's president, said in a statement.
Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Bob Corker (R-TN), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-SD) also co-sponsored the bill.
http://i.imgur.com/BHPbF.jpg
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, as expected, introduced a bill on Wednesday that provides states with the authority to collect online sales taxes, with exceptions for small businesses.
But while Amazon came out strongly in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, as the new bill is known, eBay continued its opposition, claiming that it did not adequately protect small businesses. The new bill was co-sponsored by Senators Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), plus a number of other Senate Democrats and Republicans.
Durbin also co-sponsored the Main Street Fairness Act, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance in July. A similar version of the bill in the House was also referred to committee in August. At press time, there was not a House version of the Marketplace Fairness Act.
"Most small business people don't want a government handout. They don't want special treatment," Durbin said in a statement. "They just want to be able to compete fairly against other businesses. That's why I have worked with Senators Enzi and Alexander to introduce the Marketplace Fairness Act – a bipartisan bill to level the playing field for local main street businesses."
Actually, the bill provides that smaller businesses do receive some special treatment. The bill authorizes a state to require a seller to collect sales taxes if the merchant's "total remote sales" are more than $500,000 on an annual basis. If they're less, the merchant earns an exemption.
The National Retail Federation, which represents large retailers such as Target or Walmart, also endorsed the bill. NRF executives called the $500,000 exemption "appropriate," and that it would work with whatever sales total Congress decided upon to push the bill through.
"We would be open to anything that gets the bill through," said David French, senior vice president for government relations for the NRF, in a conference call. "Politics is about the art of the possible, and I think the question will be one for the lawmakers" to decide, he said.
"Every day, brick-and-mortar retailers of all sizes do their duty to collect and remit sales taxes, putting them at a significant competitive disadvantage to online and catalogue retailers who continue to reap the benefits from an antiquated and unfair system," added David B. Henry, chairman of the International Council of Shopping Centers and president and CEO of Kimco Realty Corp. "It's time Congress took action to level the playing field, close this loophole, and help states and communities across the country,"
Battle lines drawn among Web firms
For years, consumers have been obligated to pay so-called "use" taxes on goods and services bought online, but rarely, if ever, have the taxes been enforced. That's eliminated hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, in state revenue. Amazon, the Web retailer that has benefited the most from selling products without charging sales tax, has said before that it supports a simplified method of collecting the tax.
"Amazon strongly supports enactment of the Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill and will work with Congress, retailers, and the states to get this bi-partisan legislation passed," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy. "It's a win-win resolution—and as analysts have noted, Amazon offers customers the best prices with or without sales tax."
All but five states collect sales tax, and the bill provides for two methods to authorize states to collect sales tax: either via the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement or by enacting certain simple requirements for collecting the use tax, which include a single state agency and providing software and services to remote sellers.
EBay, however, still opposes the bill, because the exemption level is "far below objective and established definitions of small business retailers," a company representative said in a statement.
The level in the bill is 60 times smaller than the U.S. Small Business Administration's existing size standard for small online retailers, 20 times smaller than the Treasury Department's recent proposal for a single small business standard for all small businesses, and 10 times small than the Small Business Exemption in Internet sales Tax bills from 2001-2008, the eBay representative said.
"This is another Internet sales tax bill that fails to protect small business retailers using the Internet and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors," said Tod Cohen, vice president for government relations and deputy general counsel at eBay, in a statement. "It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity."
The Computer & Communications Industry Association also opposed the bill. "Imposing tax collection burdens on small Internet businesses, which are some of the most promising candidates for future economic growth, would be unjustified, unfair and unwise," Ed Black, the CCIA's president, said in a statement.
Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Bob Corker (R-TN), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-SD) also co-sponsored the bill.