A bill supporting the collection of online sales tax may finally be dead after bouncing around the halls of Congress for more than a year.
This week House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Oh) indicated that he would block the measure from moving forward next month, reports The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, the bill is not likely to be revived by Congress, and especially Republicans who won big in mid-term elections, because they fear voters will view it as an indirect tax increase.
The bill’s defeat is a little surprising since it was passed by the Senate more than a year ago, and received support from many brick-and-mortar retailers, which consider it a way to even the playing field.
For years now, they’ve viewed Amazon as having an unfair advantage because it did not collect sales tax at the time of purchase in all states.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would enable states to collect sales tax online, as long as the state agreed to make it easy enough. A long list of retailers supported it, including Walmart, Target and Best Buy — even Amazon.
In a letter sent to Congress a year ago, Amazon’s head of public policy said Amazon was in favor of a new nationwide approach that is “evenhandedly applied to all but the smallest volume sellers.” Under the law, retailers that made less than $1 million in out-of-state sales would be able to apply for an exemption.
The one major opponent to the law was eBay, which worried about the law’s impact some of its largest marketplace sellers, which would find it too onerous to comply with the law.
A spokesperson from eBay and Amazon did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment.
