Last week, the taxpayer advocacy group, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), warned Congress of the slippery slope they would find themselves on if an Internet sales tax bill were to become law.  eBay, along with ATR and other taxpayer groups, have long opposed attempts by state tax collectors and Congress to allow tax agents from one state to enforce their sales tax laws on retailers based in other states, essentially making small businesses across the country tax collectors for every tax jurisdiction nationwide.

In a recent article, ATR explained their concerns with this proposal.  “The internet sales tax mandate would force businesses to become sales tax collectors for all states.  For example, if a customer in New York State makes a purchase from a company based in Virginia, the Virginia business would have to collect New York sales tax from the customer and then send the collected tax back to New York……{And} while this is scary in itself, there are a number of other problems that should cause our elected officials to think twice before they implement this new tax scheme.”

eBay strongly believes that businesses selling via the Internet should only be subject to the tax laws of the states in which they operate and we have joined with our friends at ATR to call on Congress to oppose this misguided tax scheme.

To learn more about ATR and their position on Internet sales taxes, please click here and visit their website.