Problems with Marketplace Fairness Act Still Need to be Addressed

CCIA has previously listed the many problems with the Marketplace Fairness Act: the inaccurate commandeering of terms such as “fairness” and “level playing field” when the result would be unfairly greater collection burdens for online retailers; the mischaracterization of the physical presence standard as a “loophole”; the misuse of “states’ rights” to justify actions that would actually subordinate the interests and sovereignty of some states to that of others. The impassioned speeches given by opponents of the bill on the Senate floor signify that these issues remain controversial and still need to be deliberated by the world’s greatest deliberative body. Rather than disingenuously attempting to conflate support for a vague concept of use tax enforcement with support for their own bill, proponents need to justify the severing of physical presence from taxation, which the Finance Committee Chairman called “revolutionary”, and the need to draft online retailers into duty as nationwide tax collectors. “We want the revenue and it’s convenient,” is not an acceptable answer and this bill will not be ready until they come up with one that is.