The Marketplace Fairness Act failed to secure Congressional approval again last year, but was reintroduced in the Senate in March. This week, a different version surfaced in the House. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced the Remote Transactions Parity Act of 2015 on Monday.
So the guy who drove/wrote the new remote sales tax bill for Congress jumped to the private sector to a pending Certified Solutions Provider (CSP) firm that would profit greatly if the bill was passed. He just started in May and the new bill is being introduced in June. What kismet!
And it’s only a coincidence that there is a lot of new language in the RTPA bill, compared to the Marketplace Fairness Act, that seems designed to explicitly help or protect these sales tax CSPs. It’s almost like CSPs wrote it. Hmmm.
We’re awaiting for a copy of the bill from Rep. Chaffetz’s office, a staffer told EcommerceBytes on Monday afternoon it hadn’t been numbered as of yet.
RTPA includes significant audit protections for small businesses – and, except in the case of intentional misrepresentation or fraud, exempts businesses under $5 million in gross receipts from remote state audits entirely.
Additionally, this legislation also exempts more small businesses from collection requirements in the first year – while the MFA only exempted businesses under $1 million in sales, the RTPA in the first year exempts small business under $10 million, phasing to $5 million in the second year and $1 million in the third.
Finally, the RTPA calls for states to give remote sellers the software needed to collect and remit the taxes due. It also requires states to pay for set-up, installation, and maintenance costs on the software.
The full statement is available on the representative’s website, and it includes links to the full text of the bill and a list of the bill’s supporters.
The Remote Transaction Parity Act, like the Marketplace Fairness Act, discriminates against small businesses that operate online by holding them to an entirely different and more complicated tax scheme, relative to brick and mortar stores. Just like the MFA, the bill enables states to impose their sales tax rules on small businesses outside of their borders, threatening their success with multiple audits and litigation. We will continue to work with lawmakers to advance polices that ensure small businesses – regardless of their business model – can use the Internet to grow and create jobs.