Internet sales tax bill: Harmful to small businesses By Dave Rogers, 7/24/2014 [Dave Rogers has a brick n click business. Right around 40% of all smaller local businesses sell on the Internet to compete. Dave explains how the Marketplace Fairness Act would dramatically thwart small business America. Today, more small business are closing than are starting up, which is hurting the recover because over 52% of jobs come from smaller busienss. The MFA would accelerate this trend. We need to help small business America. Lets work together to vote out legislators who have accepted huge lobby funds to pass the MFA in the Senate on May 6, 2013, and who are prepared to pass the act after recess in the next few months!] The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion. In a recent column, Arthur Laffer failed to recognize that the Internet sales tax bill currently being considered by Congress would place harmful burdens on small businesses selling their products online. As the owner of Daves Guitar Shop in La Crosse, I am deeply concerned that the Marketplace Fairness Act would hamper my ability to grow and compete with national retailers. There are over 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the country and I have sold products to customers in all 50 states. This bill would require us to comply with the tax codes in each of these jurisdictions. For me, collecting and remitting sales tax for Wisconsin alone is always a daunting task. Technical issues and glitches oftentimes complicate the tax collection process. Could you imagine the time it would take for us to do this for thousands of additional jurisdictions? It would be nearly impossible. I have always collected sales tax from my customers in Wisconsin, which is warranted because thats where my store is located. By law, I am required to collect the same tax as any Mom and Pop storefront. Yet the proposed bill would require me to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of every state where I make a sale - an expectation that would impose huge tasks on my business. To further complicate matters, I would also be threatened with audits and litigation in states that are thousands of miles away from where I live and work. These burdensome responsibilities would dominate my time and therefore stifle my ability to grow my business. Supporters of the bill claim that there is software available that would make it easy for me to adhere to these new tax requirements. This claim is completely false - collecting sales tax requires so much more than a downloadable computer program or click of a mouse. Complying with tax laws is very labor intensive and I simply do not have the profit margins to hire a full accounting team. Daves Guitar Shop maintains a staff of just 14 full-time employees. Unlike large-scale retailers, small businesses simply do not have the staff, capacity or technology in place to abide by this bill and still have the time to effectively compete in todays marketplace. If a new law is imposed, large companies have the proper infrastructure - including robust IT and accounting departments - to address the issue. Most small businesses do not have such luxuries. I am proud that I have been able to use the Internet to create jobs, contribute to Wisconsins economy and provide guitar enthusiasts everywhere with a greater selection of goods. Small businesses are the backbone to our countrys economy and we should support them by including a higher exemption in any Internet sales tax bill. Thats why I urge our lawmakers, including Senators Johnson and Baldwin, to take the time to visit a small online retailer and observe how businesses like mine operate. They will quickly realize that this bill is not the right way to bring revenue to Wisconsin. Dave Rogers is owner of Daves Guitar Shop in La Crosse wisopinion/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=56320
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 14:44:25 +0000
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