eBay Main Street

 
As the debate around the Marketplace Fairness Act continues to heat up, small business owners are speaking out against the incredible burdens this bill creates.  Take a listen, as you hear from real people, why this legislation is a bad idea!

Senator Shaheen has been a long time opponent to creating a new online sales tax regime that would open the doors for state tax enforcement agents to cross state borders and impose tax burdens and enforcement actions against businesses located in completely different states. Watch her remarks.

Bloomberg’s Sheila Dharmarajan reported on the Marketplace Fairness Act, detailing which companies are for this bill and which are against. Dharmarajan highlights what we already know: as Amazon has grown into a retail giant, increasingly expanding  its physical presence, they’ve had to begin collecting taxes. This has led to their sudden support of this bill. Along with other large retailers such as Wal-mart and Target, Amazon is lobbying heavily for the passage of this bill to successfully squeeze out small and medium businesses.

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.