Supporters of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which the Senate passed last year, are still hoping to get the House version approved before the end of this year. Without it, they say, outdated tax laws will continue to favor online-only retailers such as Amazon.com and eBay.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Seven in 10 Ohio consumers support the idea of legislation requiring online sellers to collect sales tax at the register, according to a poll released Tuesday, Sept. 16. That's 4 percentage points higher than when the same question was asked last year, proponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act point out.
That same survey found that 94 percent of Ohioans agree that local retailers are critical to their community's economic health. Local stores have pushed hard to require online-only sellers to charge and collect sales tax in Ohio and other states.
Michelle Sahr, owner of My Little Red Wagon, an independently owned toy store in Hudson, said that "As a small business owner, I strongly believe that the government should not pick winners and losers in the marketplace."
Sahr's toy store, which opened in 1991, offers free gift wrap, personalized customer service, and toys that require fewer batteries and more imagination, "making our toys great for brain development and motor skill development," according to her website.
More than 1,000 small businesses signed a petition sent to Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., this spring saying: "As business owners who are active in the community, we are dedicated to closing the online sales tax loophole that hurts community-based businesses, and we are calling on Congress to finally settle this issue and stand up for a free marketplace in which all businesses are given an honest chance to compete."
"Let us compete on true price, service, and selection without government's thumb on the scale," the letter continues. "It's time to update our sales tax laws to reflect the economic and technological realities of the 21st century."
The Ohio survey echoes the results of a national poll released Wednesday, Sept. 10, by the International Council of Shopping Centers, a retail trade group based in New York.
"A significant majority of Americans support federal legislation and with precious few legislative days left in 2014, it is time for Congress to make Marketplace Fairness a reality this year," ICSC President and Chief Executive Michael P. Kercheval said in a written statement. "Americans from all walks of life and across the political spectrum overwhelmingly agree that the long-term economic health of their communities depend on a level playing field for all businesses."
The percentage of online shoppers who want sales tax collected when they check out has risen 6 percentage points since last year, and 11 percentage points since 2012, ICSC said.
Although 69 percent of Ohioans say they know they're supposed to pay state sales taxes on their online purchases when they file their Ohio income taxes, less than 1 percent of the state's taxpayers actually do it, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Perhaps that's why 82 percent of consumers say they would prefer to have online sales taxes charged at the time of purchase, rather than be responsible for keeping track of and paying them on their own at the end of the year.
The national poll also found that 56 percent of Americans think that collecting sales tax from online-only vendors at the point of purchase is fairer to local retailers.
"It is abundantly clear that when Americans understand their current tax liability for online purchases, they overwhelmingly support federal legislation that streamlines and simplifies the sales tax collection process," Betsy Laird, senior vice president of Global Public Policy for ICSC, said in a statement.
ICSC has for more than a decade said that "a sale is a sale," regardless of whether the purchase is made at a Main Street brick-and-mortar store, at a shopping center, or online.