Legal Matters: Proposed Marketplace Fairness Act Threatens Direct Marketers

In response to proposals for expanded state taxing authority over remote sellers, resolutions have been introduced in the both the Senate and House in opposition to such federal legislation. The Senate Resolution (S. Res. 309) includes the following language:

The free Internet marketplace has enabled a large number of small retailers and entrepreneurs across the Nation to establish and strengthen businesses on various e-commerce platforms and therefore protect and create jobs, increase consumer choice, create competition in the retail industry, and provide quality goods and services at reasonable and often discounted prices; Any Federal legislation that would upset the free and fair Internet marketplace and allow State governments to impose new, onerous and burdensome sales tax-collecting schemes on out-of-state, Internet-enabled small businesses would adversely impact hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce consumer choice, and impede the growth and development of interstate commerce; and At a time when national unemployment numbers are high and businesses across the country are struggling to keep their doors open, the Federal Government should promote pro-growth and pro-business policies instead of enacting legislation that extracts additional taxes from our Nation’s Internet-enabled businesses.