Marc Ducey, a small business owner in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, published a letter to the Sentinel & Enterprise editor expressing his opposition to the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act.  Marc explains that although he understands that Massachusetts needs to do what is best for the state, they should not do it at the expense and detriment of local small businesses.  Treating a small business with only a few employees the same as mega billion dollar retailer with physical presence in every state is not sound public policy.  In addition, Marc argues that is unfair to allow

Today is the kick off event for the Postal Vision 2020 conference in Washington, DC. The conference is focused on re-envisioning the nation’s postal delivery ecosystem and discussing new systems that would accommodate changing 21^st century societal demands.

Brian Bieron, a member of eBay Inc.’s Connected Commerce Policy Lab made the following statement in advance of his participation at today’s event:

Earlier this week, The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization, released a policy analysis on the Marketplace Fairness Act.  In their analysis, the NCPA looked a number of factors that play into the overall Internet sales tax issue, including simplification requirements mandated by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), the effectiveness of state use taxes, potential uncollected revenue from online retail, and the potential impact on small Internet-enabled retailers.

Michael Buchanan, former Small Business Owner in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, published an opinion piece this week in the Southeast Missourian expressing his belief that the government should not seek to “punish people whose shopping choices we don't like by raising their taxes”.   Buchanan explained that there are many ways to “level the playing field” for local businesses, but we shouldn’t create a habit of disadvantaging a certain business model to do so.

eBay Inc. was pleased to host Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna and a delegation of senior Luxembourg government and business officials at eBay Inc.'s North Campus.