Nick Martin, a retired pro mountain bike racer turned entrepreneur and founder of The Pro's Closet, based in Boulder, Colorado, published an article in the Bicycle Retailer that argued the Senate passed Marketplace Fairness Act would be detrimental for small businesses across the country. Martin explains that nine years ago he started The Pro’s Closet, a small business that was only possible because of the Internet. However, now Congress wants to pass a bill that Martin explains “would limit my dreams for growing my company and would negatively impact the livelihoods of so many small business owners like me. Ironically named the “Marketplace Fairness Act,” this bill would subject small businesses to legal liabilities, make it impossible for us to compete with large retailers, and in turn, kill the jobs that we create in our local communities.”

Martin, like every other small business is responsible for collecting sales tax from our customers in the state where he is physically located. However, the proposed bill would require small Internet enabled businesses to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of every state where they make a sale, which Martin feels is a completely unfair expectation.

“The Pro’s Closet maintains a staff of 30 employees. Unlike large national retailers, small businesses like mine (and almost every other brick and mortar shop) simply do not have the staff or technology in place to abide by this bill and still effectively compete. If a new law is imposed, large companies have the staff in place to address the issue. If new technologies are needed to meet revised tax mandates, these companies have robust technology departments available to handle the integration. Most small businesses do not have these resources.”

Read more about Martin’s concerns with the Marketplace Fairness Act.