The National Taxpayers Union today announced release of a coalition letter from 20 public policy groups in opposition to H.R. 2193, the so-called “Remote Transactions Parity Act” (RTPA), which would grant states new power to tax and regulate internet sales made by businesses outside their borders. If passed on its own or as an attachment to a larger legislative package, this bill could subject internet retailers to the staggering complexity and compliance costs of more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions nationwide, while unwisely empowering states to exercise tax power all across the country.
Andrew Moylan, the letter’s main author and head of the Interstate Commerce Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union, said, “States have for years been aggressively moving to expand their tax and regulatory authority across borders, federalism and interstate commerce be damned. The last thing Congress should do is validate their aggression by granting them new powers.”
As Congress hurtles toward another funding deadline in March, and the Supreme Court prepares to hear the internet sales tax case of South Dakota v. Wayfair in April, some have claimed that the time is right for passage of RTPA. The NTU-led coalition argues that this would be bad policy and bad politics. RTPA would upend the common sense system on which the internet has thrived in favor of a burdensome and expensive tax and audit regime that would fall hardest on small e-retailers. Furthermore, schemes like it are opposed by a 45-point margin overall, and even higher margins among Republican voters.
Moylan concluded, “It’s never a good time to do the wrong thing. Our coalition of conservative organizations is united in saying that RTPA is a bad bill that Congress should reject.”
NTU is joined by the R Street Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Action for America, Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Campaign for Liberty, American Commitment, Center for Individual Freedom, Center for Freedom and Prosperity, ALEC Action, Generation Opportunity, Institute for Policy Innovation, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, The Heartland Institute, The LIBRE Initiative, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, and Digital Liberty in this effort.
Click here to view the full letter.