February 13, 2012
On February 1, 2012, NAR, along with dozens of other organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as well as a letter to the Chairman of the Committee (Sen. Baucus, D-MT) asking for support of S.1832, the Marketplace Fairness Act. The bill would level the playing field between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail businesses while assisting the states in collecting approximately $23 billion in uncollected state sales taxes that are currently due on Internet and other remote sales.
The inability of state governments to collect taxes on items sold from Internet retailers acts as a subsidy to online retailers. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are hurt by this un-level playing field since in-store purchases are subject to sales taxes that increase the ultimate cost of goods to customers.
Read the letter to Senate Finance Committeepdf
Read the letter to Chairman Baucuspdf