Tennessee Retailers for Main Street Fairness Act
Recently reported by The Tennessean, several retailers in the state traveled to Washington DC to speak out in support of the Main Street Fairness Act. A. J. McCall and others indicated that “every year a greater percentage of our business goes to the Internet. If you can go on one person’s website and buy something without having to pay tax, and then you go (to my store) and you have to pay tax, it’s really a fairness issue.”
McCall protested the deal between Tennessee and Amazon that pauses Amazon’s obligation to collect sales tax until 2014. The Main Street Fairness Act (MSFA) would make it possible for Tennessee to require all Internet businesses to collect and remit sales taxes on purchases made by Tennessee residents. As an associate member of the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) organization, Tennessee, if the MSFA is passed, the state could realize over $300 million in sales tax collections according to a University of Tennessee study.
Even if the MSFA passes, “states could choose not to force out-of-state vendors to collect sales taxes…and [Tennessee could] keep the state’s current system in place, including the deal with Amazon.”
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