Stop the Internet Tax on Sales
1. Stop the Yankee Internet Sales Tax -
Hurts small businesses.
The so called Marketplace Fairness Act. This is the feel good title given to the
internet tax legislation being pushed by corporate America. I don't know about you,
but as a conservative, I believe in simplifying the tax code, not expanding it.
If corporate America is complaining (rightfully so) about its tax burden, guess what the
solution is? To decrease the burden on them, not to levy new taxes against their
competition under the guise of "fairness." What will be the affect of this legislation if
it goes forward? It will begin crushing the marketplace and
small businesses and should be defeated. While this bill has passed
the Senate, the more conservative House is more likely to defeat it.
But your phone call is needed to insure this bill is defeated.
More and more we are finding it necessary to ask you to call your Members and ask them to
vote the right way. Call your
House member and tell them you expect them to vote against this travesty of a bill when it
gets to the House.
The main switchboard number for your Congressman is (202) 224-3121.
* You will by paying Sales Taxes on everything you buy on the Internet from now on.
* This bill opens the door for Federal Government Big Brother regulation of the Internet. Regulation of free speech is next.
Call NOW to Vote NO! You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the House office of your choice from your state. Leave a short message, Vote NO to the Internet Sales Tax. http://ccofal.org/alabama/alabama-internet-tax-bill.html
Please Copy and Forward the above.
We must make our voices loud and clear over this next week and demand lawmakers to vote “NO!” on this unfair, pro-tax act.
Expanding taxes to the largely tax-free internet is not in the interest of Americans or small businesses. Consumers don’t want to – and should not have to – surrender even more of their money to government just to get the goods they want from their favourite small businesses online. Business owners, likewise, should not be forced to collect sales taxes nationwide for as many as 9,600 state, municipal, and local tax jurisdictions! Not only that, online retailers should not be subject to facing multiple audits simultaneously – imagine an online shop-owner in Texas being chased by auditors from New York, California, and Illinois all at once! Lawmakers would never demand this sort of absurd red-tape limbo from brick-and-mortar shops. They shouldn’t force online retailers to either. Simple economics says that a free economy is never improved by raising taxes, especially not in a recession.
State governments have long wanted to chase taxes from sea to shining sea, even though they are constitutionally limited to collecting taxes from businesses only within their respective borders. The Marketplace Fairness Act, a bill that is anything but fair, would allow states to bully online businesses into collecting taxes on their behalves, regardless of whether or not the business is actually within their borders. Take a minute and demand your Representative and Senators to oppose the Marketplace Freedom Act!
If the Internet Tax bill passes, it will cause us major
problems.
The World Wide Web has captivated Americans and changed they way they shop.
According to Internet World Stats over 200 million people (70% of the population) in the
United States use the Internet. And, what is more astounding is over 80% of the Internet
users shop on-line.
Liberal Strategy - Special Interest Republicans Plan to pass the Internet Sales Tax
Combine 2 Bills1. Internet Tax Freedom Act - Prevents taxing the USE of the internet by Congress. For example, forbids taxing you on the number of emails that you send out. This bill has passed the House. This is good.
2. Market Fairness Act. A bill to force you to pay tax on everything you buy on the Internet. This bill passed the Senate last year. This is a very bad bill, forcing you to pay tax on every Internet purchase.
The liberal strategy is to combine the 2 bills. Below article explains how
ARTICLE - - Internet sales tax may be on lame-duck menu
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears to be laying the groundwork for Congress to vote, after the November mid-term elections, on a bill that would require online merchants to collect sales tax receipts on Internet purchases.
The Senate approved its version of the Marketplace Fairness Act more than 14 months ago by a vote of 69-27, but action has stalled in the House where a similar bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, is stuck in the Judiciary Committee.
To break the gridlock, Reid apparently plans to attach the Marketplace Fairness Act to another bill that would extend an expiring prohibition against taxes on Internet services and email. The House recently approved by voice vote a permanent extension to the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which is now before the Senate.
Merging the two bills would be put off until after the November mid-term elections when Congress meets in a lame-duck session. In the meantime, Reid announced Thursday that the Senate would consider a two-month extension of the law when it returns in September from a five-week recess.
Proponents of the Marketplace Freedom Act say the short-term delay in merging the bills is simply a matter of scheduling and expect the two issues will be joined for a long-term fix later in the year.
“Given the abbreviated floor schedule in the weeks ahead, this short-term move isn’t a surprise. But, it is clear there is overwhelming bipartisan support for moving both together,” said the Marketplace Fairness Coalition in a statement.
The coalition, whose members include the National Retail Federation, Wal-Mart Stores, Amazon and hundreds of other businesses and groups, said a long-term extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act has to include the Marketplace Fairness Act to keep the Internet “tax-free and protect local jobs.”
Womack would prefer the House and Senate negotiate a final version of the Marketplace Fairness Act but that requires the House Judiciary Committee to act — something Womack says his gut tells him will not occur.
“They’ve already slow walked this thing. I mean they’ve had it for over a year already, there is no sense of urgency,” Womack said. “So we may be forced to accept what the Senate sends back to us and that is probably going to be the Senate version of the Marketplace Fairness Act.”
Womack said his understanding is the Senate will approve a combined bill that offers a longer extension of the tax ban on email and Internet services along with the bill requiring most online merchants to collect tax receipts on Internet sales.
Womack and other proponents of the bill say the legislation is would remove an unfair advantage that online merchants have over brick-and-mortar retailers who are required to collect sales taxes. And, it would increase revenue to cities, counties and states from sales taxes on online purchases that are owed but not remitted.
Opponents say the bill represents a tax increase and an onerous burden on small Internet merchants who would have to collect taxes for thousands of tax districts.
Senate opponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act tried this week to prod Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, to object to linking the two Internet issues together.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, complained on the Senate floor that Wyden’s bill to permanently extend the Internet Tax Freedom Act was being “held hostage” by supporters of the Internet sales tax bill. While both bills concern Internet taxes, Cruz said they are very different — one is a popular effort to prevent states from imposing taxes on internet service while the second is an unpopular proposal to require small retailers to collect state sales taxes.
“Even though there is no serious objections to the Internet Tax Freedom bill, we are unfortunately seeing our colleagues from the Democratic side of the aisle hold that bill hostage in an effort to force through the Internet sales tax,” Cruz said.
Holding off a vote on a merged bill until after the November mid-terms, Cruz said, is being done to skirt voter accountability. When the short-term extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act expires during the lame-duck session, Cruz predicted a “bunch of members who have been defeated and won’t face voters again” will come together to approve the Internet sales tax.
- See more at: http://arkansasnews.com/news/arkansas/internet-sales-tax-may-be-lame-duck-menu#sthash.LYyl9T05.dpuf
On-line shopping last year generated over $200 billion in sales. As on-line sales have increased, brick and mortar business sales have decreased. This is having a negative impact on state’s sales tax collections since sales tax is not collected on all on-line sales. Therefore, many states are asking Congress to pass a new law allowing them to collect sales taxes on consumer Internet purchases from companies located in other states. Currently, businesses must collect sales tax only on Internet sales to customers in those states where the business has a “physical presence.” Generally speaking, a physical presence means such things as having a warehouse, store, or office in the state.
Democrat Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) has introduced a bill in Congress, supported by President Obama, that would require everyone to pay sales tax on all on-line purchases. The Marketplace Fairness Act (better known as the “Internet Tax”) is scheduled to be voted on next week - May 6th.
The most conservative U. S. Senators – Marco Rubio (FL), Rand Paul (KY) and Ted Cruz (TX) –
are strongly opposed to this legislation. Also, former conservative Republican U. S. Sen.
Jim DeMint who is now President of the conservative Heritage Foundation is opposed to the
bill. Here is what they have to say about the so-called “Internet Tax” bill:
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio: ”Making business collect taxes for states they are not in is not
fairness, it is a money grab”.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul: “The Republican Party is supposed to oppose tax increases and
burdensome, unnecessary government regulations. But sometimes, they lose their way”.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz: “At a time when so many people are hurting, this bill would impose
billions of dollars of new taxes on small businesses across America. That makes no sense”.
Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint: “Our nation was born from the idea of ‘no taxation without
representation’….. lawmakers in Washington want to overturn that bedrock principle in order
to extract more revenues from American consumers”.
If passed, retailers would be forced to track the place from which an online consumer is
making a purchase, calculate the applicable state and local sales taxes, collect them, and
then remit them to the appropriate agency — and, in the process, keep track of the nation’s
9,600 tax codes.
These retailers would be forced to have a small army of people dedicated to serving as
tax collectors trying to understand these thousands of tax laws. Each business would have
to verify the residence of the individual purchasing the merchandise, determine what the tax
rate is in that city/county/state, and finally send the taxes that they collect to each
state.
Funny_Internet_Tax_Cartoon, The new “Internet Tax” is good news for the Democrats in
who are always looking for more of your money to spend on their pet projects.
However, it is bad news for consumers.
The simplest solution, and the one most in keeping with our national principles,
is to allow states and cities to collect sales taxes from online retailers whose main place
of
business is in their jurisdiction
The Marketplace Fairness Act will be a regulation and tax nightmare for consumers and
businesses alike, but this act will also put a strain our recovering economy.
The last thing the United States need is more regulations and taxes.
The country is already facing an uphill battle to stabilize the economy, and economic numbers have not indicated a speedy recovery. Instead of raising taxes, more states should follow conservative example on budget issues and spend within their means, not expand their means.
Call NOW to Vote NO! You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate or House office of your choice from your state. Leave a short message, Vote NO to the Internet Sales Tax.
Last year Alabama Senators Sessions and Shelby let us down, and voted for the TAX.
* Senator Jeff Sessions - (202) 224-4124 Ala Office (205) 731-1500
* Senator Richard Shelby - (202) 224-5744 Alabama Office (256) 772-0460
Please take 2 minutes to call and leave a short message at: Simply say, vote No to Internet Sales Tax. Takes 60 seconds, and you are done.
If this bill passes, it will cost us dearly. Please take time, TODAY, and make the call. Forward this to your coworkers.
The Bottom Line: This bill has constitutional problems, privacy problems, and tax problems.
Return to HOME Page, - Defintion of Conservative