April 29, 2025
March 25, 2025
March 18, 2025
Today, Senator Ayotte (R-NH) went down to the Senate floor to express her continued opposition to the Internet sales tax bill that the Senate is currently considering. During her speech, Senator Ayotte outlined her concerns with allowing state tax enforcement authorities to cross state borders and impose burdens on businesses located thousands of miles away and the constitutional concerns with this legislation.
Last week CCTV interviewed New York City small business owner Kathy Terrill. Kathy runs a small online business selling designer clothing and trending fitness DVDs. Kathy is yet another small business owner that would be adversely affected by the Marketplace Fairness Act. Kathy runs her shop on her own with some occasional help from her husband. With the potential for new tax burdens the future of her business is very uncertain. Kathy simply lacks the time and manpower this legislation requires.
Wayne Johnson is a small business owner in Caldwell, Idaho. Wayne owns a physical fly fishing shop and uses the Internet to grow and expand his business. Under the Marketplace Fairness Act, Wayne would find himself above the proposed $1 million threshold, forcing him to collect and remit sales tax in over 9,600 taxing jurisdictions. As Wayne puts it, this bill would completely change the way he runs his business, possibly even jeopardizing the ability to keep his 8 employees.
On 18 April, the National Board of Trade organized a “Trade Policy Forum” giving eBay the floor for one and half hours. Hanne Melin of eBay’s Policy Lab and Andreas Lendle of Sidley Austin took the audience through the research and analysis that have been carried out in the context of the Commerce 3.0 project.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is attempting to bypass the Senate Finance Committee and bring the Marketplace Fairness Act to a vote as early as next week. In a letter to all eBay users from CEO John Donahoe, he says "We believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide. To put that in perspective, Amazon does more than $10 million of sales every 90 minutes. So we believe this is a reasonable exemption to protect small online businesses. That’s what we’re fighting for, and what big companies such as Amazon are fighting against.
On April 19th, a group of 18 taxpayer advocacy groups and conservative think tanks sent a letter to all 100 Senate offices expressing opposition to the Internet sales tax bill. Read their arguements...
Brian Bieron, Senior Director of Global Public Policy at eBay Inc., says “The Internet sales tax bill that is being rushed to a vote needs to be improved right now with a meaningful small business exemption to protect small businesses from becoming tax collectors for every state across America, threatening them with audits and litigation by tax collectors from states that are thousands of miles away from where they live, work and create jobs.”
On Thursday Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, urged caution on a decision about the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” in the Senate. See what he said...
This week, WWE Wrestler Glenn Jacobs, better known to his fans as “Kane”, joined the Jerry Doyle radio show to speak out against the Internet sales tax legislation that is currently moving through Congress.
Today Tod Cohen, eBay Inc. Vice President of Global Government Relations and Deputy General Counsel, spoke at the Contested Spaces Conference in London, England.