Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Marketplace Fairness Act is designed to address a simple problem--a significant loss in States' sales tax revenues arising from e-commerce. Generally, retail businesses are required to collect and remit sales and use taxes on qualifying merchandise or services. While most States require consumers to remit use taxes for purchases from out-of-State vendors, compliance is extraordinarily low as States cannot legally mandate the collection and remittance of taxes by a business unless the business has a physical presence in the State. This restriction, which was articulated in the 1992 Supreme Court case, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, went so far as to invite Congress to address the issue. It is time we do that. In an era of unprecedented e-commerce, Congress's failure so far to address this problem unfairly deprives State treasuries of much-needed tax revenue because Internet-based retailers are not required to charge sales tax to their out-of-State customers. As you might imagine, a large number of State governments have asked for this legislation to fix that problem, including the current Republican Governor of Michigan. In fact, Michigan governors of both political parties have asked Congress to pass this important piece of legislation, and I agree with them. The Governor of Michigan says that passing this law will help the State of Michigan collect more than $800 million over the next 2 years. Those are revenues that the State desperately needs.…”