Success in the U.S. Senate

Below is a message from the Alliance for Main Street Fairness that has helped lead the fight in Congress to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act that will allow a state to require online stores to collect sales tax on purchases from that state. 

The Senate in an overwhelming bipartisan vote yesterday passed the bill.  This is a victory for brick-and-mortar stores that already collect state sales tax putting them at a competitive disadvantage to the online stores.

Senator Lindsay Graham supported our small businesses with his vote but unfortunately Senator Tim Scott voted against this bill.

Now the legislation goes to the U.S. House. 

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Dear South Carolina,

We did it!

The Senate just passed the standalone Marketplace Fairness Act by a binding vote of 69-27. Next stop: the House of Representatives.

Read more about this exciting e-fairness development in our latest blog post.

This vote represents a huge victory for all of us who want to see the sales tax loophole closed—and we couldn’t have done it without your help.

But while we now have Senate passage behind us, we are only halfway home. We need to motivate the House to pass this important bill so it can be sent to the President to be signed into law.

Thank you again for making this victory in the Senate possible. Let’s continue working together to enact the Marketplace Fairness Act this year!

Best,

The Alliance for Main Street Fairness

Tell Congress to protect our small retailers

In 2011 the state sold out our small businesses and permitted Amazon not to collect sales tax from in-state purchases in exchange for the company building a distribution facility in Lexington County.  This allowed Amazon to continue to have an unfair competitive advantage over our small retailers.  That sales tax exemption runs out in 2016. 

But it’s not only Amazon that is not collecting state sales tax from South Carolinians making purchase online.  There are other companies doing the same and hiding behind federal law that says they don’t have to collect state sales tax if they don’t have a “presence” in the state.  They just keep on taking sales away from our small businesses because their prices are lower from not charging sales tax.

Please read the letter below and help send Congress a message to enable states to shut down this unlevel playing field that our small retailers face every day. 

Oh, and happy Valentine’s Day.
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Dear South Carolina,

Great news!  The Marketplace Fairness Act is set to be reintroduced today, February 14, in both the House and the Senate.  What a great Valentine’s Day present for hardworking small businesses.  We need to make sure Members of Congress, both new and old, know e-fairness is still an urgent priority for America’s small businesses and communities.

Please take a moment to send your Members of Congress an email urging them to ensure the Marketplace Fairness Act passes in 2013.

Inaction by Congress means online-only retailers will continue to receive a government-sanctioned tax advantage.  Our businesses, employees, and communities will pay the price.  While some states are starting to collect sales taxes from Amazon and other online retailers, only federal legislation will fully level the playing field.  

Send a message to Congress today: No more picking winners and losers.  Tell Congress to make 2013 the year all retailers are treated equally.

We’ve worked toward passage of federal e-fairness for a long time.  This is our chance to finally level the playing field for Main Street. 

We sincerely appreciate your hard work and continued support.  Please take a few minutes to reach out to your Members of Congress today.

Best,

The Alliance for Main Street Fairness

 

Amazon’s deal re-visited

The battle over state sales tax being collected by on-line retailers like Amazon has now moved to Congress.  Amazon, which this year won a battle in South Carolina receiving a reprieve from collecting sales tax on in-state sales in exchange for building a distribution center in Lexington County, apparently has now switched sides. 

The retail giant is supporting the Marketplace Fairness Act that would strip away the Supreme Court’s Quill decision that said on-line retailers without a physical presence in a state did not have to collect sales tax on purchases in that state.  The sales tax was still owed but it was the purchaser’s responsibility to pay it directly to their state.

If the federal legislation passes, the main opponents now are eBay and Overstock.com, all on-line retailers would be obligated to collect each state’s sales tax and remit it to the proper state.  The bill would exempt retailers with on-line sales of less than $500,000.

All this is good news for the nation’s small brick and mortar businesses that are at a severe competitive disadvantage because they have to charge sales tax but on-line retailers like Amazon do not. 

But passage of the federal legislation won’t appear to help South Carolina’s small businesses until 2016 because the legislation passed this year in the state specifically carves out a sales tax collection exemption only for Amazon to the exclusion of even all other on-line retailers.  Now the constitutionality of that special deal has been called into question.

In yesterday’s issue of Tax Analysts law professors James E. Rogers and Walter Hellerstein provide a scholarly legal assessment of South Carolina’s law regarding Amazon.  They conclude that South Carolina’s law violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution because it treats certain out-of state on-line retailers (Amazon) different from other out-of-state on-line retailers. 

So even if the Marketplace Fairness Act with its bi-partisan support eventually is enacted, the constitutionality of South Carolina’s law needs to be challenged.  Any lawyers interested?