Bill Text: FL H0323 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Failed) 2012-03-09 - Died in Federal Affairs Subcommittee [H0323 Detail]

Download: Florida-2012-H0323-Introduced.html

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HM 323

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
3	urging Congress to enact legislation to authorize
4	states that have complied with the Streamlined Sales
5	and Use Tax Agreement to require out-of-state sellers
6	to collect each such state's sales and use tax.
7
8	WHEREAS, the opinions of the United States Supreme Court in
9	the 1967 National Bellas Hess decision and the 1992 Quill
10	decision denied the several states the present authority to
11	require the collection of sales and use tax on the sale of goods
12	by out-of-state sellers that have no physical presence in the
13	taxing state, and
14	WHEREAS, those opinions of the United States Supreme Court
15	do acknowledge that Congress may confer upon the several states
16	the authority to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales
17	and use tax on these remote sales, and
18	WHEREAS, the present lack of state authority threatens the
19	continued ability of states that are dependent on such revenue
20	to rely on sales and use taxes as a stable revenue source for
21	state and local governments, and
22	WHEREAS, estimated state revenues lost as a result of the
23	lack of such authority may have been as much as $ 16.1 billion
24	in 2003, and such losses are expected to continue to climb, and
25	WHEREAS, this estimated revenue loss may have cost Florida
26	hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost tax revenue, and
27	WHEREAS, local Florida retailers who make sales at their
28	Florida stores experience a tax inequity under the de facto
29	sales tax exemption for Internet and mail order sales because
30	these traditional "bricks and mortar" businesses must apply and
31	collect sales tax while out-of-state sellers having no physical
32	presence in this state need not, and
33	WHEREAS, there exists an unfair "digital divide" under
34	which higher-income households, which are much more likely to
35	have the resources to own a computer, have Internet access and a
36	credit card to make de facto exempt, remote purchases, while
37	low-income consumers without the resources to shop online or by
38	mail, and who are consigned to shopping in local stores, bear
39	more than their fair share of state sales tax, and
40	WHEREAS, since 1999, state legislators, governors, local
41	elected officials, state tax administrators, and representatives
42	of the private sector have worked to develop a Streamlined Sales
43	and Use Tax Collection System for the 21st Century, and
44	WHEREAS, between 2001 and 2002, 35 states, including
45	Florida, enacted legislation expressing the intent of the state
46	to simplify the states' sales and use tax collection systems and
47	to participate in multistate discussions to finalize and ratify
48	an interstate agreement to streamline the collection of state
49	sales and use taxes, and
50	WHEREAS, on November 12, 2002, these states unanimously
51	ratified the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which
52	substantially simplifies state and local sales tax systems,
53	removes the burdens to interstate commerce which were of concern
54	to the Supreme Court, and protects state sovereignty, and
55	WHEREAS, the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement
56	provides the states with a blueprint to create a simplified
57	sales and use tax collection system that, when implemented,
58	allows justification for Congress to overturn the Bellas Hess
59	and Quill decisions under its federal Commerce Clause powers,
60	and
61	WHEREAS, by July 1, 2004, 21 states representing more than
62	35 percent of the total population of the United States had
63	enacted legislation to bring their states' sales and use tax
64	statutes into compliance with the agreement, and
65	WHEREAS, Florida is resolved to address the complexities of
66	the current sales and use tax collection system, and
67	WHEREAS, the Main Street Fairness Act, filed as S.1452 by
68	Senator Richard Durban of Illinois and H.R.2701 by
69	Representative John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan, was introduced in
70	the 112th Congress to grant those states that comply with the
71	agreement the authority to require all sellers, regardless of
72	whether they have physical presence in the taxing state, to
73	collect those states' sales and use taxes, and
74	WHEREAS, Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri has termed this
75	federal legislation to be "fiscal relief for the states that
76	does not cost the Federal Government a single cent" and ensures
77	the viability of the sales and use tax as a state revenue
78	source, NOW, THEREFORE,
79
80	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
81
82	That the Congress of the United States is urged to enact
83	legislation to give states that have complied with the
84	Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement the authority to require
85	out-of-state sellers to collect their sales and use tax.
86	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
87	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
88	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
89	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
90	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.