Marketplace Fairness Act PLEASE READ

[SYCARMS]

Hey everyone needs to read this and act on it immediately tomorrow or as soon as you see it for this can happen any day now. Here is a breif then I'll attach the letter. The Marketplace Fairness Act is a sales tax on Internet sales. What's bad about this is if it passes into law I will be out of the e-commerce business for I would have to collect record and pay sales taxes to over 9000 state, city, county jurisdictions. This is getting heavy lobbying from WalMart and other lge. dept. box stores as well as Amazon. I had called my 2 senators earlier and comfirmed this with their aids. PLEASE read the below letter and follow the instructions. Only 2 calls to be made.

Thanks TOM


Dear Thomas,

The statists have wasted no time launching all-out assaults on our liberties, even though the new Congress is less than three months old.

According to Capitol Hill sources, proponents of an Internet sales tax are seeking to include all, or at least provisions of, their so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” into a budget resolution during the Senate Banking Committee markup, which started today.

And if they can’t do it there, they may try to add it on the Senate floor.

This legislation, which is more accurately called the “National Internet Sales Tax Mandate,” “deputizes” small business owners as state tax collectors to collect sales taxes from your online purchases!

Senators pushing this legislation love to use feel-good catchphrases to describe it, hoping to convince us this bill would create a “level playing field” and ensure businesses pay “their fair share.”

But in reality, this bill threatens to stifle the next Internet start-up while it’s still in its infancy.

In fact, by ignoring the “physical presence” standard established by the Supreme Court ruling in Quill Corp v. North Dakota, a new, more burdensome, bureaucratic tax regime will emerge.

Here are just a few reasons why it’s so devastating.

The National Internet Sales Tax Mandate would:

*** Stifle Competition: The Mandate creates barriers to entry in the Internet marketplace that would keep only the largest businesses competitive. Small businesses with a gross income over $1 million annually would be forced to familiarize themselves and comply with the 9,600 distinct taxing jurisdictions across the country.

*** “Deputize” Business Owners: As stated above, business owners are forced to become tax collectors and are responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting tax obligations to all of those 9,600 jurisdictions with their unique rates, definitions, and exemptions.

*** Raise Taxes: The Mandate would force you to pay higher taxes if you buy goods online, even if you live in a state with no sales taxes! Worse yet, this legislation removes any downward pressure on sales tax rates, since many individuals and businesses required to pay them will be located out of state and have little, if any, recourse against politicians who hike tax rates.

I need your help right now if we’re going to defeat this legislation.

Senator, Roger Wicker, is on the Senate Budget Committee.

This is the first time in four years the Senate will markup a budget resolution.

And it’s the first time this issue has come up for a serious vote since 2001.

I need you to call your Senator and Senator Roger Wicker at 202-224-6253 and demand they oppose any attempt to include all, or provisions of, the misnamed “Marketplace Fairness Act” in any budget resolution considered by the Senate Budget Committee.

Also, urge them to oppose adding the full bill or any provisions of it through action on the Senate floor.

I just faxed a letter to both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee telling them the same thing, but to keep this from happening, we’re going to need some reinforcements.

Please take a moment today to place a phone call to your senator in support of lower taxes.

Thanks for all that you continue to do for liberty.

In Liberty,

John Tate

[ckau]

It's obvioisly designed to give big busnisness an advantage! I guess competitive pricing and decent service wouldn't be a option for them.

[bear]

Sounds like a "big box" store buffalo to me!!!

[SYCARMS]

Corporate does not want any competition. Origionaly Congress tried several years ago to pass legislation to force e-commerce to charge sales tax. Someone challenged the law as unconstitutional since a state could not collect sales tax from another state when the buisness did not take place in their jurisdiction. The new law proposed will basically deputise the e-commerce business to be tax collector and collect taxes for any state they do e-commerce with. For example before the last law was overturned I would have collected MS sales tax on all transactions and paid them to the state of MS as I do on all local sales made in the state. This new law would require me to collect sales tax for the state I made the sale to then send the procedes to them. For instance in MS when I collect the tax I mail the tax collected quarterly to the state tax commission. Now Tupelo, Ms has a 1/4 % sales tax above the 7% the state charges. This new law would change this since we would assume the responsibility of tax collection of the state which not only as I do now require me to collect the state tax but also the city 1/4% tax then send collected tax to state and city. When you take into account there are 50 states with many cities with their tax above the states % and then there are many counties which charge a % this is where the 9600 jurisdictions to collect taxes comes from. It would be up to me to find out what each tax rate is and the timeline for which I have to have the taxes paid. This would with the resources and time spent add quite a bit to the price I would have to charge making it impossible to come close to competeing . This would affect everyone even those who sell on Craigslist or Ebay. So this does not affect a business only but every private sale made by anyone using e-comerce. Many states make the people get a permit to hold garage sales then collect sales taxes on the sold items. Now I'm sure someone will come up with a program to collect these taxes for you like ebay would figure then collect the taxes for say if you sold your buggy to someone in another state. But fee's would be charged along with the taxes and shipping this will pretty much shut down much of the e-commerce since you will no longer get the deals you now get when concidering most buy online for the conveniance and good prices. It would now cost more then if bought locally. This would also force many home businesses to pay their states acessment taxes which would open ones house to an annual state inspection where they acess all invetory, furnature, equiptment, supplies used to run the business. So if you use one room of the house for the business everything in that room would be taxed, computer, desk, chair, lamp, lights anything used for that business, even the room used for that business. This is in addition to your property taxes. This is for real and would affect everyone in one way or another. So please make the 2 calls to your senator and Wicker telling them you want not even parts of that law to be vored in.

TOM

[ckau]

If this legislation was to pass congress in it's present state of proposal the effects would basically spell doom for e-commerce as we know it today. And what's really scary is the proponents of this bill know that! I find it very hard to believe congress doesn't realize the impact it would place on the "mom&pop" businesses that can only survive through e-commerce. It's obviously a attempt by big business to level the playing field. It would be effective. and what's worse, state and local municipalities would be on board enticed by added revenues.
As consumers we could realistically expect a 15 to 20% increase in the cost of goods purchased over the Internet.
I myself use e-commerce almost for everything as it's my only source. My sales only equal about 2% of what I buy, maybe 10 times a year? There's no Efin way I'm going to charge some guy in Utah sales tax on a $25 item and then turn around and send that state some measly $3.50 tax check! And because I am now an appointed tax collector for the grand state of Utah. I should be compensated for upholding that Honorable position. We'll just call it even on that $3.50.
But before I do anything, I'll give the item away as a gift and ask for reimbursement for the cost of "handling and shipping" which just by coincidence equals the selling price of that item. I may be wrong here but my time and trouble is not a taxable item and I am free to collect whatever my customer and I agree on!