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By BOB LEWIS
RICHMOND
A bill that would require global online shopping giants such as Amazon to start collecting and paying Virginia sales taxes won easy Senate passage Tuesday.
The Senate voted 28-12 to advance to the House a bill intended to collect millions of dollars in lost revenue at a time when the state faces a $4 billion shortfall.
Sponsor Emmett Hanger argued that struggling owners of so-called "brick-and-mortar" stores are struggling and shouldn't have to compete with monied multinationals who ignore state taxes.
"They're being undercut by businesses that don't pay sales taxes, and that flaunt it," said Hanger, R-Augusta, noting that their Web sites entice customers to avoid the 5 percent tax.
While sales have been flat or worse for traditional retailers who have to pay the tax, Hanger said, multinational Internet sales behemoths have seen profits soar, Hanger said.
"And that is a significant amount of revenue that Virginia is losing and we should be getting part of that," Hanger said.
Opponents, however, said the bill would have no effect on the major global online retailers it attempts to target. Instead, it would devastate small, Virginia-based online businesses who form alliances with the major companies, said Sen. Mark Herring, D-Loudoun, whose district includes the Dulles headquarters of AOL.
Faced with the requirement to pay Virginia taxes, Herring said, large online retailers will merely stop doing business in Virginia, severing their partnerships with small businesses in the state that had relied on them.
"Has Virginia's economy not contracted enough? Do we need it to contract even more," Herring asked? "This is an issue that needs to be addressed in Congress, not here.
The bill benefited from support by many Republicans who are strident opponents of higher taxes. One was Sen. Steve Martin, R-Chesterfield.
"I do not see this as a tax increase," said Martin, among the Senate's most conservative members. "This is an equity issue. This is an issue of trying to ensure that those who comply with existing law can compete with those who do not."
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whew
Ok, the bill number is SB660. It only concerns Virginia retailers who use online retailers to sell to other Virginia residents.
It's still a TAX
This will intensify the hypocrisy of every republicans and especially Bob MacDonald if he does not veto this bill.
Bill number
Please post the bill number so I can read for myself what it says.
This is great. Now the
This is great. Now the should NOT have to cut funding for education.
This is our new "Penalty of Virginia Residency" tax
What's fair is fair. If a manufacturer has a store in Virginia that I connect online and purchase something, then let me pay sales tax. But if a store is in California, then it's a transaction of California's. I'm just the shipping recipient that should NOT pay tax for a transaction that occured in California........
Hope someone's making a list of what lawmakers vote yes for this crap...
Based on delivery
Sales taxes are based on the location of delivery. It's very common to have the business in a different locality than the customer delivery. The tax itself is not in question here. You owe state and local sales tax for all mail order purchases and you are breaking the law if you do not pay them. The question is if the business is obligated to collect them because individuals rarely follow the law in this case. It's kind of the like the 55 speed limit.
Ask the
small businesses in other states that Amazon and others stopped doing business with if they agree with this. This is just idiocy
Wouldn't even know
The angle here is the broker (such as Amazon.com) is responsible to collect the tax. The business selling the item wouldn't be involved in the tax part and would be paid minus broker commission like they normally are.
This will hurt non-profits
Churches and other non-profits are exempt from paying sales tax on the purchase of tangible goods. Some out of state companies who have interests in Virginia already charge Virginia sales tax, but do not have online methods to accept tax exempt sales. I suspect most businesses will follow suit. Also, if this law were inacted by all 50 states, each business would have to collect and remit tax for 50 different states - a heavy burden on small businesses selling on line.
You Can Always Bet On It
You can always bet on it that the politicians will always find a way to spend more money and find a way to take more of yours. You never hear them mention reducing spending or cutting the size of government whether it is the feds, state or local.