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| Wednesday, April 18, 2001 |
ARLINGTON, VA, April 12, 2000--David Bullington, Vice President of Taxes for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., testified today on behalf of the International Mass Retail Association (IMRA) and the e-Fairness Coalition (a coalition of retail and retail estate interests) before the Senate Commerce Committee on the need to achieve a “level playing field” on sales-tax collection duties for any product seller, whether brick-and-mortar or Internet/direct mail. In his testimony, Bullington told the panel--whose Chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has introduced legislation that would extend a current moratorium on new or discriminatory Internet taxes for five more years--that Congress should not extend the moratorium, which expires in October 2001, without resolving the sales tax collection issue. The moratorium does not apply to normal sales and use taxes. Bullington stressed the unfairness of the present situation, in which large and small bricks-and-mortar retailers must collect sales taxes on most in-store sales, while their Internet and other remote-selling counterparts do not. He also reminded the Committee that the recently concluded Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce did not include any retailers among its 19 members, and pointed out that this lack of retail representation was a principal reason that the Commission was unable to resolve the sales tax collection issue. Calling simplification of current state sales tax laws the key to resolving the issue, Bullington stated that Congress could fairly require Internet and other remote sellers to collect and remit sales or use taxes on all taxable business-to-consumer sales. He offered some suggestions on how simplification might reasonably be achieved by reforming and making more uniform state sales taxes. Bullington also emphasized the consequences of extending the current moratorium without resolving the sales tax collection issue. By perpetuating the status quo, he said, Congress would be giving Internet and other remote retailers a de facto tax subsidy and make it much more difficult to resolve the issue in the future. Internet retailers do not need, nor should they be given, tax preference compared to brick-and-mortar retailers. Tax preferences are bad tax policy and bad economic policy, and Congress must take this opportunity to bring this tax subsidy to an end, Bullington said. He concluded his remarks with a direct appeal to Committee Chairman McCain not to give Internet retailers preferential treatment. Internet commerce will continue to flourish as more and more traditional retailers take advantage of it, he said, but it shouldn’t be propped up at the expense of others. IMRA President Robert J. Verdisco noted that, “Achieving a level playing field for all sellers is a matter of basic fairness and a top priority for IMRA. It makes no economic or business sense for government tax policy--whether intentionally or inadvertently--skewing customers’ buying decisions or favoring some business competitors over others.” The International Mass Retail Association--the world’s leading alliance of retailers and their product and service suppliers--is committed to bringing price-competitive value to the world’s consumers. IMRA improves its members’ businesses by providing industry research and education, government advocacy, and a unique forum for its members to establish relationships, solve problems, and work together for the benefit of the consumer and the mass retail industry. IMRA represents many of the best-known and most successful retailers in the world, who operate thousands of stores worldwide. IMRA equally values among its members hundreds of the world’s top-tier product and service suppliers, working with their retailer partners to further the growth of the mass retail industry. Return to Press Release index for April 2000 |
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