eBay Opposes New Legislation to Impose New Taxes on Small Internet Retailers

July 29, 2011

Today, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate and House Representatives that would impose new sales tax burdens on small retailers operating on the Internet. Brian Bieron, Senior Director, Federal Government Relations and Global Public Policy at eBay Inc., made the following statement upon the introduction of these Internet sales tax bills.

"A collection of state tax commissioners have again been able to get an outdated Internet sales tax bill introduced in Congress, but we are confident that it will be rejected because it would harm small Internet retailers.  Better policy is reflected by H.Res. 95 from Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) with 27 bipartisan co-sponsors, which says that Congress won\'t give states \'the authority to impose unfair tax collecting requirements on small online businesses.

The giant retailers jockeying for new Internet sales taxes have national store networks that they combine with their major online sales platforms, a business model they know brings some tax collection duties.  Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business retailers on the Internet."

Please click here for more information regarding eBay Inc.\'s position on the Internet sales tax issue or H.Res 95 in its entirety.