This week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post advocating for Congress to reject any attempt to further taxing Internet access and sales. Senator Cruz has been a vocal opponent of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in May of 2013. The legislation, if passed, would create a dizzying maze of new sales tax mandates for hundreds of thousands of tech-enabled small businesses across the country. In addition, it would give unprecedented authority to state tax enforcement agents and allow them to cross borders and enforce their laws on businesses located in other states. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced his intention to try and move the Marketplace Fairness Act in the final weeks of Congress. However, Senator Cruz, along with a number of his colleagues in the House and Senate, have expressed their concern and opposition.

“Never before has it been so easy to turn an idea into a business. With a simple Internet connection, some ingenuity and a lot of hard work, anyone today can create a new service or app or start selling products nationwide”, wrote Cruz. “Yet the threats from Washington to stifle freedom, entrepreneurship and creativity online have never been greater.” He explained that pending Internet sales tax legislation would require businesses to keep track of over 9,600 taxing jurisdictions, which he calls unfair.

“Such a tax would force online retailers to comply with every sales tax jurisdiction in the country. There are more than 9,600 state and local sales tax jurisdictions across the nation. Forcing small online retailers to track all of them, keep records and collect the taxes, or risk being penalized for noncompliance by distant governments over whom they have no control, is simply not fair.”

eBay Inc. also opposes the Senate-passed Marketplace Fairness Act and has recently called on our users to join us and ask Congress to keep it out of the lame duck session. Please help the cause and voice your opinion.