Guest AuthorEntrepreneurs making a living through Internet sales better get ready for a fight in Florida over your e-liberty. Government is about to come knocking on your screen.
It appears the Legislature will be considering the Internet sales tax again during the 2014 session. If enacted, the tax will apply to your e-customers who come to you through transactions you have with out-of-state vendors.
This probably is not a life-or-death situation. But eroding Internet freedom through the slippery slope of government taxes can begin the death of small online businesses.
Brick-and-mortar retailers argue that it’s unfair that they have to charge their customers sales tax when Internet retailers don’t. They whine that consumers have the benefit of coming into their store to see, touch and feel the product, but then buy it cheaper online.
But, that’s their business model. If brick-and-mortar retailers are finding it hard to compete, they need to innovate to adapt.
One way legislators can help brick-and-mortar retailers is to reduce their taxes rather than raising taxes on e-retailers. Why does the answer always seem to be more taxes, not less?
Even the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” This was true in 1816 when Chief Justice John Marshall said it in McCollough v. Maryland and it is still true today.
The Internet is one place where entrepreneurs are creating jobs in this dismal economy. Do we really want government to thwart that growth?
For consumers, the freedom of the Internet and the hands-off marketplace emerging within it is an automatic tax cut. No elections needed. No licking stamps and envelopes. No yard signs. Just let it happen. Fewer taxes, less government – automatically.
Republicans should not blow the diet by giving government a new super-size helping of tax revenue (an estimated $800 million a year for the state and local governments). What problem are we solving with the Internet sales tax?
I’ve been working with former Rep. Jerry Paul for more than a decade to defeat taxes and specifically taxes on the Internet. I asked him recently about the difference between this battle and battles of the past. He said major online retailers don’t seem to be mounting any organized opposition this year.
In the past, an Internet sales tax was narrowly defeated because it has been opposed powerful online companies, such as Amazon, that have the resources to lobby.
But now Amazon is considering massive expansions in Florida including warehouses and other “physical presence.” If Amazon proceeds with those plans, the company will be subject to the Internet sales tax.
That’s fine. That’s Amazon’s decision. But, who is left to battle for consumers?
It will take smaller online businesses and pro-consumer politicians working together to protect our e-freedoms.
