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Document 9 of 27.

JANUARY 1, 2000

SECTION: LOBBYING; Pg. 54; Vol. 32, No. 1

LENGTH: 418 words

HEADLINE: From the K Street Corridor

BYLINE: Louis Jacobson

BODY:

A Taxing Issue for Retailers
Major brick-and-mortar retailers, worried about their Internet
competitors' to keep online shopping tax-free, have formed the e-
Fairness Coalition. The International Council of Shopping Centers
and the International Mass Retail Association have taken the lead
in the coalition, which also includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the
North American Retail Dealers Association, the National
Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, and the Real Estate
Roundtable. The real estate industry is a major investor in
shopping centers.

Robin Lanier, a spokeswoman for the international retail
group, said association members "must collect sales taxes, (but)
an e-commerce retailer is not required to do so. Our guys feel
that's unfair. No one in our industry buys into the notion that
the issue is so complicated" that it is impossible to tax
purchases made over the Internet, she said. "It's just a simple
fairness issue."

Lisa Gilbertson, the association's director of tax and
financial issues, said, "We have been going to the House and
Senate Commerce committees to get members up to speed and making
sure they understand the issue."

In December, David Bullington, Wal-Mart's vice president
of taxes, testified on behalf of the e-Fairness Coalition before
the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, the federally
appointed panel charged with studying the e-commerce tax issue
before making recommendations to Congress.

Bullington urged Congress to enact legislation that would
enforce "simplification and greater uniformity" in sales tax
policy in the 46 states that impose such taxes. "We are opposed
to new and discriminatory taxes on the Internet itself,"
Bullington told the panel, but existing taxes should apply to
online sales.

Coalition members also plan to target the March advisory
commission meeting in Dallas. The alliance may undertake a study
of the impact of taxes on major retailers.

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation-which includes
such chain stores as Starbucks, Cracker Barrel, and Home Depot-is
not part of the coalition. So far, the federation has been
neutral, torn between its brick-and-mortar base and the efforts
of some of its members to enter the brave new world of cyber-
retailing. The federation is slated to grapple with the e-
commerce tax question at its board meeting in January, officials
said.

LOAD-DATE: January 14, 2000

Document 9 of 27.


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