Marketplace Fairness Act?
 

Does anybody know much about or have any opinions about the Marketplace Fairness Act, which is about to go to the Senate for a vote (tomorrow, I think):

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s743
http://marketplacefairness.org/
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-...22-910447.html

I guess the basic idea is to make every Internet transaction "fair" by allowing states to throw a sales tax on it. There is also a little section in it about "certified" software providers which makes me a little nervous, though I can't point to anything concrete. In brief, I'm wondering if the MFA is just a slight and reasonable adjustment to the system, or if this is something that will have dramatic implications for Internet commerce or any other aspect of Internet freedom.

the house will NOT pass this senate version
it is also missing the part from the last time REQUIRING the 10,000+ districts (local,state ,and fed) to simplify the sales tax
( simplification will NOT happen !! , there are just way to many loopholes that are being USED too not pay tax )

for say Amazon this would be "pocket change" to comply with 10,000+ different sales tax codes

can you see a " ma and pop" operation being able to
and a small business being audited by every state and every tax district
-- they would go "out of business" trying

Online sellers with less than $1,000,000 in remote sales annually will be exempt from collection requirements.

I would think most should want this to pass, it will help local businesses to compete with online sales among other things.

They are not "to make every Internet transaction "fair" by allowing states to throw a sales tax on it"

The taxes are already OWED by the ones making the purchases online, just too much trouble trying to collect from individuals, easier to have the companies collect at the point of sale IMO, than to have me submit them myself or government auditing my online purchases and busting my door in to collect taxes, though I doubt that scenario is realistic, it is possible and legal.

As for a mom and pop complying, with modern software this would be a snap, some have to do this now that are non-internet.

I do think they should include non-internet walk in sales, though.

There does need to be a clear process for collecting local sales-taxes ... the trick is going to be how to make that process efficient.

Unfortunately, so far, this piece of legislation is being stuffed with irrelevancies and pork. (It's macabre to watch the Library of Congress version for a popular bill.) I'm not too confident that this one will make it through, despite its appealing name.