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US Jewelers Welcome ‘Tax-Fairness’ Bills
May 7, 2017 9:30 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Jewelers of America (JA), a jewelry retail representative
body, has hailed the advancement of two tax bills that it says would put online
retailers on an equal footing with their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
The two pieces of legislation — the Remote Transactions
Parity Act (RTPA) and the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) — were recently
reintroduced in Congress, the former in the House of Representatives and the
latter in the Senate. They aim to correct a legal loophole that makes it
difficult for states to collect sales and use taxes from online businesses,
according to the bills’ proponents.
Use tax applies to purchases from out-of-state vendors that
do not have a physical location. In such cases, it is technically the
consumer’s responsibility to pay the tax that the retailer would usually pay its
home state. However, enforcement of that tax has proven to be complicated for
authorities.
As a result, while brick-and-mortar businesses
collect sales and use taxes on purchases in their stores, many online and
remote retailers do not, the JA said last week.
Under the new bills, states would be able to require remote
sellers to collect the relevant sales and use taxes from their customers,
rather than relying on consumers to pay the state directly. The RTPA in
particular requires the state to provide software and other tools to make the
collection process easier for remote businesses to implement, including audit
protections and a transition period.
“The introduction of these bills sends a
strong message to opponents of sales tax fairness that they are waging a losing
battle,” said JA president David Bonaparte (pictured). “Competition between traditional
retailers and the internet must be fair.”
He added that his organization would “continue
pushing for sales tax fairness until Congress gets this done.” |
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Tags:
congress, David Bonaparte, House of Representatives, ja, Jewelers of America, law, legal, MFA, Rapaport News, Senate, the Marketplace Fairness Act
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