It’s an interesting debate topic, retail stores have to make their customers pay state taxes and online stores do not. Is it fair? No its probably not. Will it make people shop in retail stores again? I’m going to say no.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) issued the following statement in response to a vote in the United States Senate tonight on the Marketplace Fairness Act. “Today’s vote is yet another clear signal that the special treatment of online-only retailers will soon be a thing of the past,” said Bill Hughes , senior vice president for government affairs. “For too long Main Street retailers have faced tax rules that put them at a disadvantage to out of state, online-only retailers. We welcome this week’s debate and the increasingly inevitable prospect that the playing field will soon be level for all retailers,” said Hughes.
The bill, S. 743, will give states the power (if they choose to) to require online-only retailers to collect the state sales tax due on sales made. The Senate voted 74 to 20 to bring the legislation to the floor for debate. Last month the Senate voted 75 to 24 in favor of a Marketplace Fairness Act amendment to the FY 2014 Budget Resolution introduced by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) and with outspoken bipartisan support from Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
So will your state be forcing you to pay sales tax in the near future? That’s going to be up to your state legislators. States like Delaware (my home state) doesn’t collect sales tax. Instead, things like property taxes and other sources of income make up for it.
Instead of helping the failing retail market and punishing the online-market that is growing each year, you think there would be talk of getting rid of the sales tax all together and making up for it the same way Delaware does. No, the knee-jerk instinct of “playing fair” is to punish the one’s ahead.
