eBay Main Street

Happy Veteran’s Day and a tremendous “thank you” to all who are serving and all who have served. The Government Relations team at eBay Inc. joins the rest of the country in acknowledging your sacrifice today. We salute you.

Leigh Bader is the proud owner of the Pine Oaks Golf Course in South Easton, Massachusetts, a little town about forty-five minutes south of Boston, where he runs one of the largest pro shops in the nation. Leigh developed a love of golf in college while attending the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was there that he started his career, working as an assistant pro at a local golf course. After living and traveling around the country, Leigh settled down in South Easton, where he worked his way up through the organization to reach his current position as the owner of the course. Read more.

Bruce Hahn, President of the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance (AHGA), made the following statement of support for Senator Wyden’s pro-Internet retailer resolution, S.Res. 309: “Requiring small online businesses to keep track of potentially 15,000 sales tax jurisdictions nationwide would not only be extremely burdensome and costly for the small retailer struggling to survive, but it would forever change the open ecommerce marketplace that consumers currently enjoy.” To learn more about AHGA, visit its website.

Tod Cohen, Vice President for Government Relations and Deputy General Counsel at eBay Inc., made the following statement upon the introduction of the ‘Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA)’ by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): “This is another Internet sales tax bill that fails to protect small business retailers using the Internet and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors. It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity”.

Technology trade associations, Tech America and TechNet, issued separate statements last week to announce support for S.Res. 309, which declares Internet entrepreneurs and small businesses should be protected from new sales tax burdens. Read more.

eBay Inc. applauds the most recent cosponsor of H.Res. 95, supporting the "Preservation of Internet Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses." Congressman Ander Crenshaw (FL-4) has joined the bipartisan effort to oppose new tax requirements on small e-tailers. eBay commends Crenshaw’s leadership and dedication to protecting small online businesses in this economic environment. Read eBay Inc.’s position on the Internet sales tax issue here or read H.Res 95 in its entirety.

Earlier this week, Pete Sepp, Executive Vice President of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), made a statement of support upon the introduction of S.Res. 309. Senator Wyden introduced S.Res. 309 to encourage protections for small Internet retailers from new sales tax burdens. NTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting lower taxes and smaller government. The organization has been a strong advocate for Internet retailers in the debate over online sales tax policies. Click here to read NTU’s full statement on the introduction of S.Res. 309. Read more.

eBay’s Government Relations team hosted Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) on a tour of eBay Inc.’s North campus in San Jose, California last week. The tour provided Senator Hoeven, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, with an overview of eBay’s network operations, and an opportunity to learn more about e-commerce. The group also discussed some of the federal policy issues facing the eBay community, including federal Internet sales tax legislation. The Senator was especially interested in how Internet sales tax policies impact the more than 1,200 Top Sellers in his home state of North Dakota. Read more.

eBay is a proud supporter of the Department of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy campaign to promote safe and smart online shopping in preparation for the holiday season. The campaign is part of the Australian Government’s Stay Smart Online initiative. The initiative provides information for Australian Internet users on simple steps they can take to protect their personal and financial information online. Read more.

Today in the U.S. Senate, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced a bipartisan resolution “Supporting the Preservation of Internet Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses.” This resolution clearly expresses opposition to states imposing new tax burdens on small businesses on the Internet, including requirements to collect and remit sales taxes for out-of-state online purchases. Read more.