The Marketplace Fairness Act is a bill being considered in Congress that proponents say would “level the tax playing field” by allowing states to require online-only businesses with Web sales of $1 million or greater to collect sales tax from customers.
Arkansas Business takes a look at the issue this week in its cover story. FLEX360 director Brent Birch told AB that creating a “level playing field” may just create more headaches than it’s worth:
Brent Birch, director of Flex360, the Web design division of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, said the problem is with implementing the software for the change, which will have to be accurate across all 50 states.
“Tax tables will have to be integrated into their e-commerce platforms and be dynamic enough to be updated in real time,” he said. “How many online retailers are prepared for that? Likely not many outside of the huge outfits. And the cost to implement will likely be passed back to consumers in one way or another.”
He said the process of enforcing collection of sales tax from out-of-state customers, then remitting them back to the customer’s state, would be a “nightmare.”
