(Alexandria, VA) – The 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) the nation’s oldest and largest taxpayer advocacy organization, today sounded the alarm over quiet, behind-the-scenes efforts to force Internet businesses of all sizes to collect billions of dollars in brand new sales taxes – a scheme NTU once identified as a possibility in a paper called “Ten Tax-Hike Threats in the 111th Congress.” The plan would irrevocably tear down the wall that protects the Internet from oppressive taxation, a wall that NTU has fought to fortify for years.
Congressional sources say that introduction of federal legislation to implement the “Streamlined Sales Tax Project” (SSTP) could happen as early as this week. This comes in response to ongoing deliberation surrounding the issue of tax policy toward the Internet and the SSTP, a campaign that would allow states to collect sales taxes on transactions made by residents beyond their borders. States need Congress’s blessing for SSTP because of previous court rulings that governments cannot force firms within their jurisdiction to collect taxes on sales made to out-of-state customers.
“It is unfathomable that lawmakers, in good conscience, would place yet another tax burden on American families given our current economic climate,” said NTU Director of Government Affairs Andrew Moylan. “Passage of SSTP legislation would shovel more money into the coffers of states that don’t deserve it, while resulting in even more economic pain for hard-working taxpayers who have suffered enough.”
As many states continue to face record budget shortfalls, it is not surprising that they have turned to taxing online commerce in a desperate attempt to pay for their profligate spending. State and local government officials are leaning hard on Members of Congress to pass the bill to provide them new avenues into taxpayer wallets. They are particularly focusing on convincing Republicans to join the effort, in the hopes that bipartisan support of the tax hike will improve its prospects.
“Republicans and Democrats alike should reject SSTP,” Moylan concluded. “Firms that engage in e-commerce already contribute enough revenues to governments, and passing this tax hike would threaten the shining example of free markets that is the Internet.”
NTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen organization founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom at all levels. Note: For more information on NTU, visit www.ntu.org or send a text message to 54608.