The Internet Sales Tax “event horizon” is near.

March 23, 2010

Just in case you missed it late last week, The Wall Street Journal ran a good article last week about all the recent state-by-state legislation efforts.

Politically speaking, we believe we are rapidly approaching an “event horizon” at which time the mandate for federal legislation to resolve interstate sales tax matters will be irreversibly required under the United States constitution. We feel the growing volume of state-by-state actions attempting to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax are increasingly interfering with interstate commerce as multi-state sellers are becoming entangled by these varied obligations and uncommon sets of rules. These state-by-state efforts share imperative origins in significant budget crises, that cannot be remedied by program cuts alone. However, each state is attacking this problem differently, which should quickly provoke action by merchants across the country and legislators across the aisle to finally resolve this issue once and for all. We look forward to this moment coming soon!

Leave a Comment » | Issues, State News, Technologies | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by FedTax

Idaho Legislation to join Streamlined dies

March 19, 2010

SAD UPDATE – March 19, 2010 – Idaho House Revenue and Taxation Committee fails to agree. Yesterday they voted 9 YEA to 9 NEA – so… No action. Business Week is reporting that several “conservative anti-tax Republicans” in the House (including Majority Leader Mike Moyle from Star and Rep. Phil Hart from Athol)…

“are suspicious of efforts to modify Idaho’s laws”

We are certainly not constitutional lawyers, but… isn’t that their job? Very frustrating! I guess we can all try again in Idaho next year, or…

Now Listen up voters and legislators, this is getting serious! By failing to act now, our federal legislators are actually encouraging a more difficult interstate commerce environment (albeit passively), as so many states are now creating widely varying laws regarding interpretation of nexus, out-of-state reporting obligations, and thresholds for state-by-state registration requirements.

Please, please, please call and/or write your legislators to encourage them to introduce and pass the Main Street Fairness Act so that each state doesn’t have to make this stuff up as they go (and suffer the cost of resulting litigation). It is now time for our United States Congress and House of Representatives to act, before more states invent still more laws (like CO’s remote reporting, or NY’s Amazon Taxes).

UPDATE March 10, 2010 – As covered by the NewYork Times, the Idaho House of Representives’ Revenue and Taxation Committee today voted 10 (in favor) to 8 (opposed) to introduce their own version of SB 1295, bringing Idaho one step closer to becoming a full Member State under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Way to go Idaho!

UPDATE March 2, 2010 – Idaho Senate has voted unanimously in support SB 1295! Now the bill is off to be reviewed by the Idaho House of Representatives’ Revenue and Taxation Committee (see update above).

(Originally published 2/3) Last week (on January 27th) Idaho Senator Mike Jorgensen (R-Hayden Lake) proposed Idaho Senate Bill 1295 (Here’s the complete SB 1295 and the related Statement of Purpose and Fiscal Notes to have Idaho join the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement!

Local Idaho journalist Sharon Fisher for the award-winning online news source NewWest.Net wrote about it first earlier today.

Go Idaho!

Here’s hoping those other states considering affiliate taxes tax note.

UPDATE: Business Week just picked up an article by John Miller of the Associated Press: “Tax cheats, others shorting Idaho $250 million.”

Leave a Comment » | State News | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by FedTax

HI there!

March 7, 2010

Last Wednesday (March 3rd, 2010) the Hawaii Senate approved SB 2405, and sent it to the Hawaii House of Representatives for consideration.

SB 2405 adopts changes to the Hawaii General Excise Tax system to allow Hawaii to participate in the national Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement.

After the Hawaii congress had passed a similar measure last yer (SB 1678), Gov. Lingle Vetoed the bill, then the Hawaii Senate voted to override the veto, but the House of Reps. did not.

This year, hopefully Gov. Lingle will allow SB 2405 to become law – now that Hawaii anticipates a $500,000,000+ budget gap. SB 2405 could allow Hawaii to collect on at least $47,000,000 in sales tax currently due, but logistically un-collectable. Admittedly SB 2405 may only be able to recover about 10% of Hawaii’s anticipated budget shortfall. Fortunately however, SB2405 does not require any new taxes, or any further painful budget cuts.

Leave a Comment » | State News | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by FedTax

Florida Senate Introduces Streamlined Bill

March 2, 2010

The Florida Senate has formally introduced legislation in support of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement! Senate Memorial 0254 (which is nearly identical to the Florida House of Representatives House Memorial 157 introduced last fall) , sponsored by Senator Ring, urges members of the Florida congressional delegation to co-sponsor the Main Street Fairness Act and to support its adoption by the Congress of the United States.

Leave a Comment » | State News | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by FedTax

Colorado’s new law

March 2, 2010

Colorado HB 1193 (which we wrote about a few weeks ago) is now the law in the State of Colorado.

Basic details are provided in Emergency Regulation 39-21-112.3.5. Complete details are in the bill which became law on February 24 (less than one week before it became effective).

If your company sells to any Colorado purchaser as of yesterday, your company must either voluntarily collect Colorado Sales Tax, or you must:

  1. Include the following notice on each invoice and receipt (failure to do so will subject your business to a $5 penalty, per invoice) :

    Although we, as the seller, are not obligated to collect Colorado sales tax, this purchase is subject to Colorado sales tax unless it is specifically exempt from taxation. This purchase is not exempt merely because it is made over the Internet or by other remote means. The State of Colorado requires that you file a sales/use tax return at the end of the year reporting all of your purchases that were not taxed and pay tax on those purchases. Retailers that do not collect Colorado sales tax, including ourselves, will provide you an end-of-year summary of your purchases to assist you in filing that report. Details of how to file this return may be found at the Colorado Department of Revenue’s website, www.taxcolorado.com. Please note that we are required by law to provide the Colorado Department of Revenue with a report of the total amount of all of your purchases from us at the end of the year.

  2. Your business must also send an end-of-year statement to all Colorado purchasers detailing that purchaser’s transactions over the past year, and reminding the purchaser of their obligation to report and remit all sales and/or use taxes to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

  3. Your business must also file an annual statement with the Colorado Department of Revenue detailing all the transactions of each Colorado purchaser.

Note: There is a time allowance for implementation to occur - so long as your business has made the changes to your invoices by April 30, 2010, any accrued per-invoice penalties (from 3/1/2010 through 4/30/2010) will be waived.

1 Comment | State News | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by FedTax

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 402 other followers