Congress to Reconsider Ecommerce Tax Bill

Sales tax — specifically whether or not ecommerce transactions ought to be collected in the same manner as they are with brick-and-mortar businesses — is again a hot controversy in Washington where the idea has resurfaced before the House of Representatives in the form of the Main Street Fairness Act. The reaction from ecommerce retailers has been critical, with advocacy groups pointing to the byzantine complexity of tax codes of more than 8,000 tax jurisdictions across the country. Ecommerce-Guide.com has the details.

A controversial proposal to rewrite federal tax law to include ecommerce transactions has resurfaced in Congress, sparking protests from online retailers and advocacy groups, and revisiting a long-simmering debate over how sales taxes should be collected on Internet purchases.

Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) has teamed with four Democratic co-sponsors to introduce the Main Street Fairness Act, legislation that aims to put online retailers on a par with their brick-and-mortar counterparts regarding the collection of sales taxes.

Read the complete online sales-tax controversy article