Congress Could Pass Online Sales Tax Legislation This Year

Congress Could Pass Online Sales Tax Legislation This Year

Are you used to buying stuff on Amazon.com and not paying tax?   Lots of business owners are doing it too.

And that might change.  At Accounting Today,  Roger Russell offers an update:

The impact of the economic downturn has been felt particularly hard at the state level, with many states operating under a deficit. Since taxes based on income don’t produce as much revenue during a recession as they do during good economic times, transaction taxes, including sales and use tax, become even more important to a state’s ability to fund its obligations. But many Internet sellers don’t collect the tax, and many Internet purchasers don’t report the corresponding use tax on their returns.

Which is why the there are currently three bills in Congress that seek to put the obligation for remitting the tax on the retailer rather than the purchaser.

The three—the Main Street Fairness Act, the Marketplace Equity Act, and the Marketplace Fairness Act—would generally allow states to require remote sellers to collect and remit sales and use taxes on remote sales. They all, to one degree or another, make reference to the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement. This was a response to the 1992 Supreme Court decision in the Quill case, which held that a state cannot require out-of-state retailers to collect taxes from residents in states where the retailer has no physical presence, or nexus.

Of the three bills, the Marketplace Fairness Act is most likely to pass.  Read why.