Want to know why Washington is screwed up??
April 25, 2013
Mr. Jerry Sharrett
Dear Jerry,
Thanks for getting in touch with me to share your concerns about the Marketplace Fairness Act.
When you buy something online or from an out-of-state retailer, under state law you owe the same state sales tax that you would pay if you had purchased it at the local store. But most online sellers don’t collect the state sales tax, and many purchasers don’t pay it, even though it’s owed.
Of course, keeping track of all your online and out-of-state purchases is something even an accountant might have a hard time doing, so many Americans are failing to pay sales and use taxes they owe on these purchases. Some argue that the Marketplace Fairness Act would create a new “Internet tax.” This is wrong. The bill would not create a new tax. We are talking about the plain old state sales tax--and all of us in Tennessee and 44 other states already owe. In Tennessee, you can learn more about sales and use taxes and complete the return online at
https://apps.tn.gov/usetax/.
States should have the right to decide for themselves whether to collect – or not to collect – the state sales taxes that are already owed from out of state retailers the same way they do from local stores. This is a great big tax loophole that subsidizes some taxpayers at the expense of others and some businesses over others. Main Street retailers are up in arms about the unfairness of this online sales-tax loophole, and allowing states to collect taxes that are already owed could reduce tax rates or avoid the arrival of a state income tax, which are possibly the most hated words in our tax vocabulary in Tennessee.
Congress has been trying to solve this problem for years, and the Marketplace Fairness Act is bipartisan legislation offering states two ways to make it simple for out-of-state sellers to collect state sales taxes. I am a cosponsor of this legislation and believe this is about allowing states to close a loophole -- a tax loophole. It is about stopping the subsidization of some taxpayers over other taxpayers and stopping the subsidization of some businesses over others.
I’m grateful that you took the time to get in touch with me. Your comments are important to me and I’ll be sure to keep them in mind as these issues are discussed and debated in Washington and in Tennessee.
Sincerely,
Lamar
Another tragedy of this is that Bob Corker, our other Tennessee Senator, says we must keep interest rates NEAR ZERO so the US can
borrow money cheaply. Meanwhile anyone with any savings at all is supposed to invest it in WHAT??? Current rate on a 5 year CD is now 1.05 APR!!! Invest it in a stock market that drops 7% in a few seconds on a TWEET that the White House has been bombed?
