Bill Text: FL S0094 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement [WPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Committee on Finance and Tax [S0094 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S0094-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                                      SM 94 
 
By Senator Lynn 
7-00029-10                                              201094__ 
1                           Senate 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 Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act, 
68  filed as S.34 by Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and H.R.3396 by 
69  Representative William Delahunt of Massachusetts, was introduced 
70  in the 110th 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.