OPINION:
A new Internet sales tax is not inevitable despite what tax advocates would have you believe (“Congress eyes online sales tax,” Web, Dec. 2).
Supporters of the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act are bullish about their plan to jam their fatally flawed measure through the lame-duck Congress. In recent weeks, they tried to attach their new tax to a defense authorization bill. As politically expedient as that gambit may be, tax advocates have done little to alleviate the very deep problems with the Internet tax measure.
The tax bill still imposes expensive and unprecedented burdens on retailers that use the Internet to reach new customers across the country. This legislation forces even small businesses to file taxes for thousands of jurisdictions nationwide and face audits from 46 states.
The majority of the e-commerce industry continues vigorously opposing a new tax regime that has failed to meet its promise to simplify the present state patchwork of rates and rules. Honest efforts to create such simplifications have been discarded by tax supporters, who prefer instead to sneak a flawed bill through Congress with legislative parlor tricks.
Many in Congress oppose the creation of an unprecedented and unfair new tax regime, and they have the power to force tax advocates back to the drawing board.
STEVE DELBIANCO
Executive director, NetChoice
McLean
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