Advocacy

Seventeen small business owners representing 21 stores in Ohio have sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner to express their strong disappointment regarding his lack of support for sales tax fairness.

On December 8, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge brought by the Direct Marketing Association regarding a 2010 Colorado law that requires out-of-state retailers to either collect and remit sales tax for purchases made by Colorado residents or to inform their Colorado customers that they owe use tax on the purchases they have made.

With just a few weeks left in the congressional session, the Advocates for Independent Business is urging indie businesses to participate in a grassroots social media campaign in support of e-fairness.

At the Miami Book Fair International panel discussion “Do Monsters Live in Our Laptops?,” book industry experts, including ABA CEO Oren Teicher, discussed whether the promise of digitization as a democratizing force has instead led to large corporations dominating the book industry.

Following protests by ABA and NAIBA, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would have punished bookstores that mistakenly disclose customer information to the police and other third parties.

The sponsors of Banned Books Week are asking booksellers to respond to a short online survey, which will help organizers improve the only national celebration of the freedom to read.

Effective January 1, the operations of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression will be integrated into ABA’s in order to expand the free speech programming available to independent booksellers.

Bookstores that opted out of the Visa and MasterCard credit card swipe fee cash settlement back in 2013 may have received, or could soon receive, a notice offering them the chance to rejoin the cash settlement class.

Advocates for Independent Business has re-launched #efairnessnow, a grassroots social media campaign in support of e-fairness, in the hope that the campaign will go viral and catch the attention of members of Congress.

The Marketplace Fairness Coalition has sent a letter signed by more than 320 organizations to Speaker of the House John Boehner that urges him to tackle e-fairness in this legislative session.

The Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges for individuals and small businesses are slated to reopen for open enrollment on Saturday, November 15. This enrollment period will mark the first time that Small Business Health Options Programs will be available online for businesses in all states.

With the results of the midterm elections now in, the long-term status of federal sales tax fairness legislation has become muddled; however, the lame-duck session of Congress still offers the best opportunity to pass federal sales tax fairness legislation, according to the Main Street Fairness Coalition.

While the status of federal sales tax legislation may be up in the air at present, an E-Fairness Map released this week by ABA makes one thing abundantly clear: The number of states tackling e-fairness on their own continues to grow.

Illinois state officials have announced that Amazon will be building a distribution center in the state and it’s expected that the online retailer will be receiving tax credits from the state. Under a new law that went into effect in August, Amazon is obligated to collect and remit sales tax to the state beginning January 1, 2015.

Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction; First Amendment groups challenge Idaho school’s parental consent form; Eric Schwartz joins Columbia University Press as editorial director