The Governor Urges Congress to Add Sales Taxes to Cyber Sales

Online retailers had their biggest day ever on Cyber Monday as holiday shoppers drove sales up 30% vs. the same day last year.  Unfortunatley  local and state governments will not see any of that money because sales taxes are not added to cyber sales.   Washington Governor Christine Gregoire hopes congress will change that.  She's urging congress to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act to give states the option to collect sales tax and use revenues from out of state sellers through a new simplified tax systerm.  On "The Mike Bastinelli Show," Jan Teaque, President and CEO of the Washington Retail Association said "Online sales will benifit small business and help states and local governments with extra tax revenue," she also says "It's unfair to local retailers who have to collect sales taxes and turn them over to the state, and they're trying to compete with out of state online retailers who do not have to collect the tax."   Gregoire noted that these would not be new taxes, but rather current taxes that go uncollected by remote sellers due to a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision. Purchasers of goods that aren’t taxed already owe an equivalent use tax, but few individuals pay it. Adoption of the legislation would generate an estimated $558 million in state and local taxes during the Fiscal 2013-15 biennium and $934 million by the Fiscal 2015-17 biennium, according to Washington’s Department of Revenue.