Many readers may remember an e-mail floating around the web several years ago about a bill, called 602P, which would allow the Federal Government to collect a five cent surcharge on every e-mail received. According to the information contained in the e-mail, the Feds would charge your internet service provider who in turn would charge your account five cents for the e-mail. The money would be used to help the Postal Service. That e-mail was false and there was no bill called 602P, but it did generate a lot of anger from the wild and untamed World Wide Web users.

Fast forward to 2013 and there’s a bill in the United States Senate called the “Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013” (S. 743) which, according to a website supporting it, “grants states the authority to compel online and catalog retailers (“remote sellers”), no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction.”

Unlike 602P, S. 743 is an actual bill.  Maybe they should call it the “Tax Increase and Burden on Small Business Act?”

The supporters of the plan don’t believe this is a tax increase. In my view, it is. For example, a few weeks ago I purchased a pair of shoes from a company in Massachusetts. I did not pay a sales tax on those shoes. If this bill passes, and I purchase shoes from that company again, they will add a sales tax to my purchase. That would be a tax increase on me.

I am no lover of sales taxes. It’s very annoying when I go to a store in a state that has a sales tax and I see something advertised for $.99 on the shelf and it ends up being four, five, or six cents more when I get to the checkout.

Montana’s two U.S. Senators don’t support the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013. In a press release Senator Jon Tester’s office stated that it would “burden Montana’s small businesses with new costs and complicated regulations.” In today’s Great Falls Tribune, Senator Max Baucus said, “In Montana, it forces our small businesses to play tax collector for other states — with absolutely no benefit to them.”

I applaud Baucus and Tester for their stand against this bill. Ironically, several “anti-tax increase” Republican senators are supporting this bill. Shame on them.

The bill looks like it will probably pass the U.S. Senate this week. A Cloture Motion was agreed to by a 63-30 vote on April 25. The Senate comes back from recess this week and will take up the bill.

The U.S. House of Representatives may be the last stand to prevent the tax increase and to prevent additional burdens from being placed on small businesses. Hopefully Montana’s U.S. Rep., Steve Daines, will follow the lead of Baucus and Tester by not supporting the bill.

UPDATE:  I received an e-mail from Rep. Daines this afternoon,  In it he says, “This week, the Senate plans to vote on a bill that would fundamentally change how online purchases are taxed. As a fifth-generation Montanan who supports our state’s no sales tax policy, I am opposed to this legislation– but I want to hear from you on this issue.”  Daines then asked in a survey, “Do you support the Senate’s proposal to impose a national “online sales tax” on goods purchased online?”

We pay enough taxes already. As for the politicians who end up supporting the Marketplace Fairness Act, it will be easy for their opponents to tell voters during their next reelection campaign that they supported a tax increase. Very easy.

Follow me on Twitter @TheWesternWord

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