Monday, February 8, 2010
Senator Joan Bray, D-St. Louis, today filed legislation to streamline the state sales tax code so that Internet and catalog sales are taxed the same as purchases made at brick and mortar retailers in Missouri.
The legislation would allow the state to recoup millions of dollars in sales taxes that are currently not collected, while leveling the playing field for retailers across the state.
“This would be a voluntary sales tax collection system that 23 other states have already adopted,” Sen. Bray said. “Missouri has one of the most complex sales tax codes in the country.
By adopting the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, we could simplify our sales tax code and collect millions of dollars in revenue for education, health care and other priorities that our citizens expect us to fund.”
The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement was ratified by 35 states in 2002. Currently, 23 states are complying with the agreement. Of the eight states surrounding Missouri, Illinois is the only other state that has failed to adopt the agreement.
A 2009 University of Tennessee study found Missouri is projected to lose $963 million in tax revenue from 2007-2012 because the state does not collect sales and use taxes on e-commerce. The study estimates Missouri will lose $159.4 million in tax revenue this year alone by refusing to collect sales and use taxes on Internet and catalog sales.
The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement simplifies and modernizes sales tax collections and administration by adopting:
• Uniform product definitions.
• Uniform state and local sales tax bases.
• State-level administration.
• Central seller registration.
• Uniform returns and remittance.
• Uniform standards for sales tax holidays.
The U.S. has more than 7,600 taxing jurisdictions, each with its own rates and definitions of taxable items.
States are prohibited from forcing out-of-state companies to collect sales and use taxes unless those companies have a physical presence in the state. The advent of the Internet has made that more unlikely.
Comments
Rune04 (anonymous) says...
They make it sound like this is just a case of making the tax code more streamlined and more efficient. Yeah right.
February 10, 2010 at 8:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )