Urging Support for Passage of the Remote Transaction Parity Act H.R. 2775
Adopted at the 83rd Annual Meeting in 2015
WHEREAS, for many years The United States Conference of Mayors has urged Congress to pass legislation to level the playing field between businesses that sell goods and services on Main Street and out-of-state companies (remote sellers) who sell over the Internet, through catalogue mail-orders and telemarketing; and
WHEREAS, state and local governments have sales and use tax laws in place that require their residents to pay the use tax when they purchase goods over the Internet, or when ordering from out-of-state catalogue mail-order companies or telemarketers; and
WHEREAS, under current law - the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 Quill decision - state and local governments have authority to require in-state businesses on Main Street to collect their taxes but they are prohibited from requiring remote sellers like Internet retailers to collect their taxes; and
WHEREAS, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has acknowledged that use taxes are owed when residents purchase goods from remote sellers, and despite the fact that state and local governments have tried to collect use taxes by requiring their residents to submit them when they file their state income taxes, state and local governments have not had much success collecting these taxes because experience has taught they cannot do so without the full cooperation of remote sellers; and
WHEREAS, it is unlikely most remote sellers will ever volunteer to collect state and local taxes since they currently have an unfair advantage in the marketplace over Main Street merchants; and
WHEREAS, state and local governments continue to lose significant amounts in revenues each year due to taxes that go uncollected on remote sales and these losses are expected to continue to pile up as online sales grow exponentially; and
WHEREAS, online purchases world-wide currently represents over $1 trillion in sales per year and is estimated to nearly double in the next four years, and in the United States online sales reached an estimated $294 billion in 2014 and is estimated to reach $414 billion by 2018 according to a recent White Paper released by forrester Research on Seizing the Cross-Border Opportunity; and
WHEREAS, according to the University of Tennessee, state and local governments are currently losing an estimated $26 billion annually due to taxes that go uncollected on remote sales; and
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that while Congress is solely responsible for regulating interstate commerce, it can, if it so desires, grant state and local governments authority to require remote sellers to collect their taxes; and
WHEREAS, Representative Jason Chaffetz (UT) introduced the Remote Transaction Parity Act, H.R. 2775 on June 16, 2015 to modernize our nation's outdated sales tax collection process; and
WHEREAS, the proposed legislation will provide state and local governments authority to require remote sellers to collect their taxes, provided they change their tax systems to comply with certain simplifications standards; and
WHEREAS, Representative Chaffetz worked very closely with all stakeholders, including representatives of state and local governments and a broad cross-section of business groups, in crafting the Remote Transaction Parity Act, and as a result the bill enjoys broad bipartisan support in the House; and
WHEREAS, the Remote Transaction Parity Act is similar in many respects to the Marketplace Fairness Act which was supported by The United States Conference of Mayors and other state and local groups, and approved by the Senate in 2013 by a huge bipartisan majority vote of 69 to 27; and
WHEREAS, just as Senators Richard Durbin (IL), Mike Enzi (WY), Heidi Heithkamp (ND) and Lamar Alexander (TN) provided outstanding bipartisan leadership that led to the passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the Senate, we believe Representatives Jason Chaffetz (UT), Steve Womack (AR) John Conyers (MI), Jackie Speier (CA), Kristi Noem (SD), Steve Stivers (OH), Peter Welch (VT), and Susan Delbene (WA) will provide outstanding bipartisan leadership that will lead to the passage of the Remote Transaction Parity Act in the House,
NOW,THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors strongly urges all members of the House of Representatives to cosponsor and support the immediate passage of H.R. 2775; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors urges all Mayors to immediately contact their Representatives in the House and urge them to cosponsor and support the immediate passage of this important legislation.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors commends Representative Jason Chaffetz and all cosponsors for introducing the Remote Transaction Parity Act, H.R. 2775, to modernize our nation's outdated tax collection system.
Projected Cost: Unknown