Letter Supporting Sales Tax Fairness Legislation

LETTER SUPPORTING SALES TAX FAIRNESS LEGISLATION

U.S. House of Representatives

Date

The Honorable (Full Name)

United States House of Representatives

Office Number & Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman/Congresswoman (last name):

My business, (insert company name here), has been operating in your district for (number) years, employing (number) full- and part-time people. During that time, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and dealers like us have been under siege thanks to an obsolete Supreme Court ruling that gives out-of-state Internet sellers an unfair advantage.

I am writing to (thank you for co-sponsoring/ask for your support of) H.R. 2193, a bill to restore States' sovereign rights to enforce State and local sales and use tax laws, commonly known as the Remote Transactions Parity Act. The Senate passed sales tax fairness legislation with overwhelmingly bi-partisan support in 2013, but the House failed to act, and legislation supported by members of both parties continues to languish in the Judiciary Committee.

The Supreme Court’s Quill v. North Dakota ruling that made physical presence the criteria for collecting state sales tax came into being well before the Internet evolved into the influential channel it is today. By allowing out-of-state sellers to forego collecting applicable state sales tax, businesses like ours that do collect sales taxes are at a government-sponsored disadvantage.

Major retailers in our industry have gone out of business in recent years, thanks in part to their inability to compete with the Internet. We can match the price of an Internet seller, but it’s nearly impossible to match the additional savings created by the unfair Quill ruling. We don’t fear competition, but we do fear the unfair competition that legislative inaction sustains.

States have begun challenging this unfair status quo by passing their own legislation and moving through the judicial system to get relief that would provide needed revenue for police, fire, parks and other municipal services. This would create a patchwork of inconsistent laws that only federal legislation can prevent. It is estimated that in 2015 nearly $26 billion dollars in sales tax revenue went uncollected because of this inequity, meaning that state, county and city governments had to look elsewhere to create additional revenue by raising other taxes.

(Please co-sponsor/Thank you for supporting) H.R. 2193.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Name & Title

Company