Sales Tax Initiative

This week, ABA CEO Oren Teicher shares an update on association activities with members. Last month, ABA President Becky Anderson wrote the membership, and, moving ahead, she and Teicher will alternate each month with updates about the association's activities.

On Friday, July 29, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Main Street Fairness Act, federal sales tax fairness legislation that would authorize states under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) to require remote retailers to collect and remit sales tax in those states.

The California Board of Equalization (BOE) has voted to begin the rulemaking process for sales tax fairness legislation (AB 28X), signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown at the end of June.

As Amazon.com begins collecting signatures for a referendum vote to overturn California’s sales tax fairness law, the drumbeat of editorials, columns, and op-eds lambasting Amazon for seeking a voter referendum to protect its tax loophole grows louder.

On Tuesday, July 19, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation that makes clear that companies that have warehouses in the state, such as Amazon.com, must collect and remit sales tax.

The California Attorney General’s office has ruled that Amazon.com is legally permitted to seek a voter referendum to overturn sales tax fairness legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June.

In a slew of recent editorials, columns, and op-eds, Amazon.com is being skewered for its attempts to avoid collecting and remitting California sales tax.

Just weeks after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed sales tax fairness into law, Amazon.com has filed a petition with the California Attorney General’s Office seeking a voter referendum to overturn the law. In response, ABA, NCIBA, and SCIBA will be reaching out to the California Board of Equalization to urge the Board to enforce the law.

In the wake of the recent passage of California’s sales tax fairness law, booksellers expressed happiness at the hard-fought victory, noting that it creates a level playing field and will improve the state’s economy, add jobs, and help struggling businesses.

In a decision with potential ramifications for other states, Tennessee’s Office of the Attorney General recently issued an opinion stating that it was “constitutionally defensible” for a state to require a remote retailer with a distribution facility or subsidiary in the state to collect and remit sales tax to the state.

An Internet Taxation Forum organized by Local First Utah featured panelists on all sides of the e-fairness issue, from those in support of both state and federal solutions to those who oppose requiring remote retailers to collect and remit sales tax under any circumstances.

In a hard-fought and significant legislative victory, on Wednesday, June 29, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sales tax fairness provision into law. The e-fairness win for independent bookstores and Main Street retailers follows more than a decade of advocacy efforts, which saw sustained opposition and many near-victories.

In California, it’s still an open question whether Gov. Jerry Brown will sign sales tax fairness into law, while an affiliate nexus bill fell short in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Amazon.com is attempting to negotiate a five-year sales tax exemption in Texas.

On June 7, the same day Amazon.com opened its shareholders meeting in Seattle, the Alliance for Main Street Fairness ran full-page newspaper ads decrying the online retailers attempt to evade its obligation to collect and remit sales tax in states where it has nexus.

On Thursday, California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a proposed budget that contained a sales tax fairness provision. However, the sales tax fairness campaign in the state is not over. In vetoing the budget, Gov. Brown did not single out the sales tax fairness provision as a contibuting factor.