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Marketplace Fairness Act 2011 in the Senate Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others, have scooted their bipartisan version of the Marketplace Equity Act (H.R. 3179), in the Senate and dubbed it the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832). With the states and Amazon crying out for a Federal solution, and organizations crying “foul, new tax,” cosponsors Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) presented their view as revealed in the National Review Online earlier today: “Some — mostly taxpayers and out-of-state businesses who enjoy being subsidized by the loophole — argue that we would create a new ‘Internet tax.’ This is wrong. We are talking about an existing state tax that purchasers already owe. And it is a tax on all sales, not only Internet ones.” The next argument addressed was that of the uncommon burden this type of bill would place on small businesses that use the Internet to sell products. In response to that concern, Enzi and Alexander had this to say: “Our proposal exempts online sellers with annual sales of less than $500,000 from collecting any tax at all.” As of today, it appears that Amazon is behind the legislation and supports it, while eBay still expresses concern that 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.” However, the text of the bill itself, does not remove the requirement to be a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax organization — a specific requirement in the Main Street Fairness Act. Instead, it provides for alternative methods of empowering a state to require sales tax collection and remittance duties of Internet retailers. Not too dissimilar to the Main Street Fairness Act and not too dissimilar to the House’s Marketplace Equity Act, Enzi and Alexander pointed out, “Our bill is a rarity for Washington, D.C.: It is only ten pages long.” NOTE: 11/10/2011 updated to include bill number S. 1832. Related content:
- Senate Resolution Proposed Regarding Internet Sales Tax
- Main Street Fairness Act Competition
- On Capital Hill – RILA weighs in on Deficit and Taxes
- Yet Another Federal Legislation Proposal?
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