President’s Message: Alibaba and the Sales Tax Thieves

Over the last year and a half, I have written several messages about the pressing need for passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act. In those messages, I have cited numerous reasons including: To level the playing field. The government shouldn’t be choosing winners and losers by providing unfair tax advantages to some. The taxes are owed …

Survey Finds Louisianans Strongly Support Marketplace Fairness

As a follow-up to my previous posts about the Marketplace Fairness Act, I wanted to share the results of a recent Louisiana-specific poll. Results released by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) indicate an overwhelming majority of Louisianans (78 percent!) support federal legislation that requires online-only sellers to collect sales tax at the time …

National Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Online Sales Tax Collection at Time of Purchase

As a follow-up to one of my previous President’s Messages about the Marketplace Fairness Act, I wanted to comment about a recently conducted national poll by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). The results of the poll show that the majority of American consumers (64%) are aware that they are required to pay state …

Marketplace Fairness Act Passes Senate

After many years of campaigning by ICSC and other trade organizations, the U.S. Senate voted 69 to 27 yesterday to approve S. 743, “The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013,” moving the legislation one step closer to enactment.  As I mentioned in my recent President’s Message, the passage of this bill is critical to the Commercial Real …

President’s Message: Wouldn’t it be nice if all taxes were “voluntary”?

Typically, I steer clear of any politically-charged issue in my President’s Messages, but there is a bill currently pending in the Senate that falls into the “just plain common sense” category.  The Marketplace Fairness Act deals with the problem of uncollected sales taxes from the sales of internet retailers that do not have a physical presence in the state in which …