We think the Main Street Fairness Act H.R. 5660 has a number of strong points – it would modernize existing laws, promote a streamlined approach to tax collection, return billions of dollars to state revenues and put all businesses (local and remote) on equal footing. One more important point that has been overlooked is that it supports consumer privacy. The Main Street Fairness Act will eliminate the need for states to enact burdensome and privacy encroaching reporting laws to enforce sales tax collection. States have already started requiring online merchants to report on consumers’ purchases – notably North Carolina and Colorado. Attached is a Press Release from FedTax.net that explains this point of view. We also have an online Petition that lets people express their support for all of the benefits of HR 5660.
Blog Response: PC Mag’s Dvorak is wrong.
August 16, 2010We couldn’t agree more with this response to PC Mag’s editorial blog post last week. American Programmers Independent wrote this brief commentary response to John C. Dvorak’s mis-characterization of HR 5660.
We too have been longtime fans of Mr. Dvorak’s work, and were disappointed by his clear lack of understanding (or even any basic attempt at understanding) this matter. As an editorial, we understand and respect that it is merely his opinion, but we expect more journalistic integrity from the Ziff Davis editorial board.
Our attempts at outreach to Mr. Dvorak and PC Magazine since this editorial was published have not been responded to.
Systemax CEO: Online Sales Tax Collection is Imminent
August 10, 2010According to this article at Multichannelmerchant.com, Systemax CEO-technology products group Gilbert Fiorentino announced during a session at eTail East in Baltimore that “States are under pressure to raise their revenues, and with e-commerce sales rising, they are seeing these revenues go out of state,” Fiorentino said. “I don’t see the states ignoring it for a long time. Sales tax has become an issue for everyone, and in the near future we’ll all be collecting.”
Systemax owns TigerDirect.com, CircuitCity.com and CompUSA (which has retail locations), so Mr. Fiorentino has a perspective on both sides of the sales tax collection discussion.
if you are at the eTail East conference, look for FedTax.net’s VP Sales, Carl Stefanelli. He would be happy to explain how our TaxCloud service makes sales tax collection and remittance a breeze for internet merchants of any size.
San Francisco Chronicle: “Time to collect state tax on Internet sales”
August 3, 2010There is a good article in the San Francisco Chronicle today by Bill Dombrowski, the CEO of the California Retailers Association.
The article does a nice job outlining the need to change the current state of affairs related to internet retailers refusing to collect local sales taxes, while all other retailer are required to do so.
Oddly, the article does not mention the Main Street Fairness Act (HR 5660) now before congress – an omission which can only be related to printed page layout constraints. We commented to add this important detail for the readers of the Chronicle. Naturally, we also pointed out that TaxCloud can now calculate the accurate local sales tax for every jurisdiction in the country — for free!
The Times Leader: “States eye online retail for tax revenue”
August 1, 2010Mike Zapler, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News, wrote a good summary piece, “States eye online retail for tax revenue” which appeared in The Times Leader (a Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania newspaper). We have not seen the article run in the Mercury News yet, but we will certainly be watching for it.
News: Internet Retailer reports on TaxCloud
July 16, 2010Have you seen it yet?
Paul Demery, Managing Editor of Internet Retailer just wrote about TaxCloud – Check it out!
Forbes: eBay Sellers Shirk Sales Tax Law
July 15, 2010Just an FYI, if you haven’t seen it already, you need to read this article by Janet Novack of Forbes.
It describes a study “Do eBay Sellers Comply With State Sales Taxes?” just published in the National Tax Journal (a quarterly publication only available to National Tax Association members).
The study monitored 21,000 eBay listings posted by 7,000 sellers with 9,300 buyers over a 24 hour span and saw $755,905 worth of consumer electronics sold, but only $60,249 of those sales were made between a seller and buyer in the same state. The study goes on to note that only 18% of sellers bothered collect sales tax at all (in-state or otherwise).
eBay may be a little concerned, which may explain why they are opposing the Main Street Fairness Act so forcefully. eBay has taken a position in the press that the requirements of the Main Street Fairness Act would impose a crushing burden on small businesses. This is very surprising coming from a company whose business model is to provide turnkey services that enable anyone to operate a storefront with very little effort. It is hard to believe that sales tax calculation is beyond the ability of eBay to provide.
Naturally, we would be happy to help eBay easily bring their sellers into compliance with all local sales tax laws, at absolutely zero cost to eBay or eBay’s sellers.
NCSL’s new “lost revenue” map
July 10, 2010
Anyone looking for a more approachable way to see exactly how much sales tax is not being collected on internet purchases right now should be sure to check out the new interactive “lost revenue” map recently published by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
TaxCloud™ Breezes Free Sales Tax System Across the Internet
July 2, 2010FedTax.net announces the launch of TaxCloud, a free, web-scale sales tax calculation engine designed to support all internet merchants. The Main Street Fairness Act, introduced the same day, would require all internet merchants to collect sales tax.
Seattle, Washington – July 2, 2010 – The Federal Tax Authority (FedTax.net), a private company that is committed to making it easy for online merchants to collect sales tax, today announced the launch of its TaxCloud™ sales tax calculation and remittance service. TaxCloud is free and easy to use, and it can be integrated with virtually any accounting or e-commerce shopping cart system. TaxCloud calculates the sales tax due on any purchase in any tax jurisdiction in the nation and stands ready to assist merchants with meeting the requirements of HR 5660, commonly referred to as the Main Street Fairness Act, which is now pending before Congress.
FedTax.net has been designated a Certified Service Provider (CSP) by the Governing Board of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. The CSP designation means that TaxCloud meets rigorous standards for sales tax calculation. Merchants who sign up with TaxCloud can instantly calculate the local sales tax due on any internet transaction for over 13,000 tax jurisdictions.
The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) is the result of the cooperative efforts of 44 states, the District of Columbia, local governments, and the business community to simplify sales and use tax collection and administration. The agreement minimizes costs and administrative burdens for retailers that collect sales tax, particularly retailers operating in multiple states. It encourages internet and mail order retailers to collect tax on sales to customers living in the SSUTA member states. It also aims to level the playing field, so that local brick-and-mortar stores and remote sellers operate under the same sales tax rules.
TaxCloud can perform all of a merchant’s sales and use tax functions, (except the merchant’s obligation to remit tax on its own purchases). Each member state and associate member state has certified the accuracy of the TaxCloud service. TaxCloud automatically monitors tax codes and incorporates any changes—so all TaxCloud merchants maintain compliance with all local sales tax laws with zero effort. TaxCloud also generates reports and automatically files state-by-state Simplified Electronic Returns for the merchant. In addition, merchants who use TaxCloud will qualify for amnesty from the SSUTA member states for failing to collect sales tax in the past.
“Achieving Certified Service Provider status is a great accomplishment for FedTax.net,” said R. David L. Campbell, Chief Executive Officer. “Our company was founded specifically to offer online merchants a free and easy way to accurately calculate and remit voter-approved state and local sales tax. The introduction of this legislation by Congressman Delahunt is an important step towards the equitable collection of sales taxes, while simultaneously providing local municipalities with much-needed revenues.”
TaxCloud takes advantage of an extensive cloud computing infrastructure. “By using cloud computing, we were able to build a massively scalable, highly available, and secure service at a much lower cost, which allows us to offer our service free to our customers. We designed our system from the ground up to be easy to use by businesses of any size, even those with no dedicated IT departments,” noted Paul Onnen, Chief Technical Officer and Chief Information Security Officer.
Now that all the work involved in achieving CSP designation has been completed, FedTax.net is moving into the next phase of the company’s mission: To modernize the sales tax subsystems for every e-commerce and point-of-sale system in the country.
About FedTax.net
The Federal Tax Authority (FedTax.net) is a private company that is committed to making it easy for online merchants to collect sales tax. FedTax.net was founded by technology veterans with extensive experience in the large-scale development, deployment, and support of internet-based services in environments with extremely high transaction volumes and financially sensitive information. The management team has been directly involved in building some of the most recognizable brands in e-commerce, including Google, Microsoft and Expedia.
FedTax.net has been designated a Certified Service Provider by the Governing Board of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. The company’s TaxCloud service enables e-commerce retailers to easily calculate and remit voter-approved local sales taxes across the country. TaxCloud precisely determines the correct amount of sales tax due for any transaction, including state, county, city, and localized taxes. It is free and easy to use, and it can be easily integrated into virtually any accounting or e-commerce shopping cart system.
FedTax.net is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has an office in Stamford, Connecticut. For more information on FedTax.net, please visit http://FedTax.net or e-mail service@FedTax.net.
For additional information please contact:
Beatrice Vaccaro
The Federal Tax Authority (FedTax.net)
(206) 452-1686
Main Street Fairness Act Introduced!
July 1, 2010Representative Delahunt (D-MA) introduced the Main Street Fairness Act today. The bill number is H.R. 5660. The current co-sponsors are Conyers, Capuano, and Herseth-Sandlin.
Here’s the official announcement: Delahunt Introduces Main Street Fairness Act
Summary of HR 5660 | Complete Text of HR 5660
The first article we have found about it is from the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
The second article about it is from the National Conference of State Legislators.
The third article is from Small Business Television (SBTV.com).
The fourth article is from The Hill.
Here the latest status: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:H.R.5660:
status as of 7/1/2010: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Posted by Fed-Tax.net
There was a press conference in Washington DC today about The Main Street Fairness Act, a bill introduced by Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) on July 1, 2010. The bill aims to help states retrieve billions of lost sales tax revenues that are currently owed but go uncollected on remote (online and catalog) sales. Rep. Delahunt was joined by South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds (R-SD), Former Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives Chris Rants (R-IA), state leaders and small business owners. Here is the 