Retail group pushes Senate on online sales tax

An influential retail group is urging senators to tack an online sales tax amendment on to the defense spending bill currently on the chamber floor.

In a letter, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reiterated its case that the online sales tax proposal — proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) – would merely correct an imbalance in current law.

“As the nature of retailing evolves and internet sales become a more prominent portion of total retail sales, it is critical that sales tax collection requirements not discriminate between similar businesses based on how their products are distributed,” wrote David French, NRF’s senior vice president of government relations.

“The current collection disparity has tilted the competitive landscape against local stores[,] creating a crisis for brick-and-mortar retailers around the country.”

The Senate has finished voting on amendments to the defense bill for this week, but will pick the measure back up next week.

The bill from the three senators would allow states to collect sales tax revenue from out-of-state Internet retailers. As of now, states can only bring in sales taxes from companies that are located within their borders, due to a two-decade old Supreme Court decision. 

But while the legislation has bipartisan support in Congress, and the backing of the powerful Internet retailer Amazon, some prominent conservative lawmakers and groups, as well as other online retailers, oppose the bill.

Conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) say that policymaker should be finding ways to reduce shoppers’ tax burdens, and coalitions opposing the measure say that it would place a huge burden on smaller outfits.

Backers of the measure would like to see it enacted before the end of the year, to avoid having to reintroduce it with a new Congress.

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