Today, Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are offering an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that would create a framework for future legislative action to create a new Internet sales tax regime that would allow state tax enforcement agents from one state to impose tax burdens on businesses located across the country.

eBay Inc. strongly opposes attaching any Internet sales tax language to the Senate Budget Resolution.  eBay believes that the debate over whether or not to allow certain states to impose their tax laws on small businesses located in other states is not relevant to the federal budget, and instead should be dealt with in regular order so that issues like small business protections and the expansion of state taxing authority can be discussed in an open and transparent manner.

This morning,  Brian Bieron, Senior Director of Global Public Policy at eBay Inc., made the following statement today in response to the introduction of the Internet sales tax amendment:

“Small business retailers who use the Internet should be protected from any new grant of power to far-away state government tax collectors so that they cannot be threatened or sued by states that are thousands of miles away and have no connection to the local communities where those small businesses create jobs and opportunity. Any Internet sales tax legislation, amendment or other legislative vehicle should include clear, direct and meaningful protection for all small businesses that are using the Internet.”

For more information on the Internet sales tax issue and eBay’s efforts to protect small businesses, please click here.