Wasn’t it former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill who said “all politics is local”? It doesn’t get more local than Utah small businesses and eBay employees visiting the state capitol to talk about taxation!   

 

With a team of twelve, eBay representatives recently met with Lt. Governor Spencer Cox (and his cardboard likeness) and over 25 legislators during the “2017 eBay Utah Fly-In” to express concern over SB 110, a bill that would require out-of-state sellers without a physical presence in the state to collect and remit sales taxes to state tax authorities if they sell over a certain amount into Utah. The intent of the author, Senator Bramble, is to invite an expensive lawsuit, funded by Utah taxpayers, for the purposes of overturning Supreme Court precedent that currently protects small businesses from 50 states’ ability to impose collection of sales tax on and audit out-of-state businesses. Some state legislators around the country, like those in Utah, are attempting to pass individual state laws with varying requirements in an effort to make ecommerce so burdensome for some remote sellers that Congress is forced to act on federal legislation.

 

In meetings with their state legislators, eBay small business owners and employees explained how businesses would be negatively impacted by the constitutional overreach, how the state stands to receive little revenue from the proposal, and questioned why taxpayers should be required to fund a lawsuit challenging a law that is already being expedited in another state (i.e. South Dakota). 

 

eBay will continue to host these events in state capitols and Washington DC as we look to protect the interests of eBay marketplace users.