{"id":653770,"date":"2013-04-22T16:07:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T20:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webpronews.com\/?p=226141"},"modified":"2013-04-22T16:07:12","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T20:07:12","slug":"white-house-comes-out-in-favor-of-online-sales-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/653770","title":{"rendered":"White House Comes Out In Favor of Online Sales Tax Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation currently making its way through the Senate is the Marketplace Fairness Act<\/a>. In essence, it would allow states to collect taxes from online purchases even if the online store doesn’t have a physical presence in the state. Brick-and-mortar stores claim the bill levels the playing field with online retailers while opponents say it would put undue regulations on online businesses while making the tax code even more cumbersome. Guess which side the White House agrees with. <\/p>\n

The Hill reports<\/a> that the White House has formally announced its support for the Marketplace Fairness Act. The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the bill today at 5:30 p.m. The newfound endorsement from the White House will most likely play a role in the debate today. <\/p>\n

White House press secretary Jay Carney issued the following statement in regards to the bill: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis administration has carefully considered the legislation, and our team has met with a broad array of people on the issue. And we have heard overwhelmingly from governors, mayors and the business community on the need for federal legislation to level the playing field for our businesses and address sales tax fairness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, retail stores have a vested interesting in seeing this passed, but its the governors that are probably pushing for it most. Most states are in dire need of cash. Collecting sales tax from every U.S.-based online store, regardless of location, could potentially bring billions of dollars in revenue to states. Carney said that the potential tax revenue would help states fund “K-12 education, police and fire protection, access to affordable health care, and funding for roads and bridges.” <\/p>\n

The bill faces some pretty stiff resistance not only from Senate Republicans, but online businesses and conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform. Ebay is even enlisting its sellers to protest the bill. <\/a><\/p>\n

The common complaint from those opposed is that the bill would put undue burdens on online retailers. The current tax system has created a symbiotic relationship between online companies and the states. The states attract online companies to set up a physical presence in a state through a number of perks while the company brings tax revenue and jobs to the state in question. A universal online sales tax destroys that relationship by making online companies collect sales taxes for states that they receive no benefit from. <\/p>\n

Of course, there’s an argument to be had that retail stores just need to better compete with online retailers. Retail stores have a number of advantages over their online retailer competition, but rarely do they ever use them. Perhaps its time for retail stores to stop driving away customers with stupid policies<\/a> and instead create an inviting atmosphere that transforms shopping into an experience that’s just not possible with online retailers. <\/p>\n

At this point, it’s too early to tell exactly what kind of damage, if any, the Marketplace Fairness Act would cause. It could possibly do nothing, but some are right to fear that it would legitimately hurt the operations of online retailers like Amazon while providing no real benefit to retail stores.<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation currently making its way through the Senate is the Marketplace Fairness Act. In essence, it would allow states to collect taxes from online purchases even if the online store doesn’t have a physical presence in the state. Brick-and-mortar stores claim the bill levels the playing field with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7358,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}