The US Senate has approved plans to introduce an online sales
tax. Under current laws, retailers only have to pay sales tax if
they have a bricks-and-mortar presence in a state. The new
proposals seek to make firms pay sales tax in every state that a
sale is made. The 69-27 Senate vote in favour of the
“Marketplace Fairness Act” sees the bill move up to
the House of Representatives.
If the task of collecting the tax is passed to the retailers,
it’s understood they would have to deal with more than 9,600
tax-collecting jurisdictions, including state and local
governments. President Barack Obama and online retailer Amazon
are some of the bill’s most ardent supporters. Smaller online
retailers as well as eBay are against the bill, arguing that its
implementation is too complicated, among other concerns.
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