GA going Streamlined!

May 28, 2010

UPDATE – 5/28/2010 – Georgia’s Governor Sonny Perdue signed the Streamlined Legislation! The bill is now law, taking effect January 1, 2011!

UPDATE – 4/30/2010 – Georgia’s Senate approves Streamlined Legislation! The bill is now sitting on Governor Perdue’s desk for signature. Georgia, you’re on our minds now :)

(originlly published 4/1/2010) Lady GaGaNo, we are not speaking about Grammy Award winning pop sensation Lady GaGa. Rather, we are of course speaking about the State of Georgia (the “Wisdom, Justice and Moderation” state).

Last Friday, Georgia’s House of Representatives passed HB 1221 (introduced 2/18/2010) adopting legislative amendments to allow Georgia to become a full Member State under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. This bill has now been introduced to the Georgia Senate and been assigned for consideration by that legislative body’s Finance Committee – we are trying to determine if there is a hearing scheduled, and if so when.


Ladies and Gentlemen… Start Your Engines!!!

May 11, 2010

Rumors abound that a certain piece of legislation might be introduced this Thursday!

Increasing state-by-state efforts to recover uncollected sales taxes due for most Internet purchases are creating an increasingly hostile compliance burden on multi-state retailers. If you didn’t think the budget problems were enough to encourage federal action on this matter, perhaps this growing body of state-by-state legislation (such as the so-called “Amazon Taxes,” and aggressive reporting requirements) is enough to compel federal action due to the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

Not to mention, our new TaxCloud service (launching July 1) will eliminate all previous concerns related to undue technical or financial burden (its FREE!) as cited in the 1967 Bellas Hess opinion as the only reason for exempting Remote Sellers from their obligations to collect local sales tax. Bellas Hess anticipated technology could eventually solve the administrative burdens of calculating and remitting local sales taxes for every jurisdiction in the land, but even then only Congress has the ability to grant States interstate collection authority. FINALLY, after 43 years, Congress should now act.

As we like to say here at Fed-Tax.net “Shop Globally, Support Locally!”


California Legislators: “Did we say that? No we didn’t.”

May 4, 2010

California Assembly Bill 2078, introduced in February, was originally drafted to require out-of-state sellers to file reports with the California Board of Equalization detailing all purchases made by California Residents – similar to the recent Colorado Law. It also required the collection of sales tax by any retailer “having any representative, agent, salesperson, canvasser, independent contractor, or solicitor operating in this state.” This was likely worded to have a similar effect as several states’ so-called “Amazon Tax” laws (a.k.a. “Affiliate Nexus” or “Complex Nexus“).

Well, AB 2078 was quietly amended last week. Now it simply says that any retailer not required to collect sales or use tax provide notification on its web site or catalog that purchases in California “are not exempt from sales or use tax, which are required to be reported and paid by the purchaser”. Certainly a much less controversial mandate.


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