Internet Sales Tax Bill 2014 - Since the Republicans midterm election victories, the Congress announced the bill to end tax-free Internet shopping was abolished, disappointing several business groups in the United States. Retailer companies have long criticized against an apparent gap that gives e-commerce competitors a biased gain by allowing many online shoppers to evade sales tax.
However, a spokesperson for John Boehner, the House of Representative Republican speaker, said the Internet sales tax bill that was passed in the Senate last year will not move forward in the final weeks of the current Congress, the 2014 lame duck session.
The announcement to end the Internet sales tax bill is a blow to retailers which had considered that the bill had a better chance of passing this 2014. CNBC reported that though the Republicans are close to the business sectors and have policy priorities that closely match those of America's biggest companies, the Internet taxation is one area where retailers gather more support from the Democrats.
With control divided between Republicans and Democrats, the new Republican-governed Congress's announcement on abolishing the Internet sales tax bill this 2014 has disappointed many large retail companies in the United States.
"The Speaker has made clear in the past he has significant concerns about the bill and it won't move forward this year. The [House] judiciary committee continues to examine the measure and the broader issue," Boehner's spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation will try to urge Congress into passing a major Internet sales tax bill during the upcoming Congress' lame duck session this 2014. The trade organization plans to spend substantial amount on ads and other media in its efforts to convince lawmakers not to end the bill.
The federation spokesperson, Stephen Schatz said they will transport local retailers to Washington to press their cases, aiming on wavering lawmakers of the Congress. According to Washington Examiner, the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act last year, but the House never took it up.
The Internet sales tax bill 2014 would allow state to require online traders to charge customers sales tax. And the taxes would be based on the state where the customer lived, not where the trader is located.
"We believe that sales tax fairness legislation will move in the lame-duck session whether in the form of the Marketplace Fairness Act ... or another vehicle," Schatz said.
Though John Boehner's spokesman has announced Monday that the Internet Sales Tax Bill, also known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, won't move this 2014, the federation and its allies are hoping they can still get a degree passed by connecting the Marketplace Fairness Act to legislature that would lengthen the current suspension on Internet access taxes, which is scheduled to expire on Dec. 11.
However, many conservative anti-tax advocates say lawmakers should call the federation's effort a bluff. The conservatives have complained that the Internet taxation bill amounts to a new tax and would expand states' authority by allowing them to collect tax via online business in other jurisdictions.
"Passing a short term extension of the Internet tax moratorium that still allows states to implement Internet [sales] taxes is not a 'deal' Americans should accept. It is far better to let the [access tax] moratorium expire and reinstitute [it] in the next Congress than to accept a bill that exposes Americans to 45 different state departments of revenue and 50 states' regulatory burdens," Americans for Tax Reform federal affairs manager Katie McAuliffe stated.
"After Speaker Boehner said that [the Marketplace Fairness Act] was a non-starter in the House, it would be a lousy underhanded approach to try to cram seriously flawed legislation down the throats of Americans," McAullife added.
In the Senate, a spokesman for Dick Durbin, a member of the Democratic leadership who helped pass the bill, expressed the lawmaker's thoughts about the debated issue.
"Our goal hasn't changed and the bipartisan group of senators and the coalition will continue to work to find a path forward for it," Durbin's spokesperson stated.
However, Boehner's spokesman stressed that this 2014, the Congress and the Senate should work together to extend the suspension on the Internet sales tax bill without further delay.
Ever since Internet commerce took off in the late '90s, the retail industry has contended that online retailers have an unfair advantage since sales taxations are seldom applied to those purchases. And despite the announcement to end the 2014 Internet sales tax bill, retailers vowed to keep pushing the bill during the Congress' lame duck session.
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