Max Baucus: “I would like to say a few words about the pending bill before us. This bill will hurt small businesses not just in…”

“I would like to say a few words about the pending bill before us. This bill will hurt small businesses not just in Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon--non-sales tax States--but all across the country. The bill will let one State go after businesses in another State. This bill could give any State the right to make businesses across the country collect sales taxes for that State when selling products online. Therefore, businesses could be forced to spend their time and money collecting taxes for States across the country with no benefit to them. I am repeating that this bill has not been through regular order. The Finance Committee has not had a chance to improve this bill or address the many unanswered questions about its provisions. The floor of the Senate is no place to try to improve upon the bill and make the bill work. Years of work have been put into the issue of State sales taxes, and I commend Senators Durbin and Enzi for it. Unfortunately, that work is not reflected in the bill on the floor today. For years, the concept of allowing States to require out-of-State sellers to collect sales taxes on their behalf was done through a compact known as the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. After over a decade of work on streamlining, only 24 States adopted the required simplification measures. The remaining States refused to join the compact. Why? Because they didn't want to meet the requirements for simplification.…”