ABA Leads Sales Tax Fairness Day on Capitol Hill

On Wednesday, November 2, the American Booksellers Association led an advocacy day in Washington, D.C., in support of a federal solution to the critical issue of sales tax equity.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher, President Becky Anderson, and Vice President Steve Bercu on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Participating with ABA and indie booksellers in the 31 meetings with key legislators and senior staff in the Senate and House of Representatives were retail members and association staff from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, the National Bicycle Dealers Association, the National Association of College Stores, and the National Retail Hobby Stores Association. ABA also worked with the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Alliance for Main Street Fairness in organizing the advocacy day.

As was noted in a front-page story in the November 2 edition of Roll Call, a newspaper that reports on legislative events, the meetings followed the introduction of bipartisan sales tax fairness legislation in the House and the expected introduction of new legislation in the Senate. Roll Call noted that Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) was working with Republican senators, and that they were expected to introduce their bill soon, even as “as members of the American Booksellers Association and several other organizations representing independent businesses blanket Capitol Hill in support of the idea.” 

On October 12, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) introduced the Marketplace Equity Act, which provides states with the authority to require remote retailers, including online-only businesses, to collect and remit sales taxes.

“We were pleased with the success of our day this week in Washington, D.C., on sales tax equity. In 31 meetings with legislators and their senior staff in both the Senate and the House, indie and college booksellers, toy stores, bike stores, and hobby stores were able to provide firsthand accounts of the profound economic impact that the failure to collect sales tax in an equitable manner has on America’s small businesses and Main Streets,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “This is a moment of real opportunity to fashion a national solution to this enormous problem, and our clear message to Congress was that it’s imperative that they take the necessary steps to allow states to enforce their existing laws and level the retail playing field so that government is no longer in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace.”

Teicher added that ABA was “very appreciative of the participation of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, the National Bicycle Dealers Association, the National Retail Hobby Stores Association, and the National Association of College Stores, which have also been very active in this ongoing fight for fairness.”

Participants in ABA’s Sales Tax Fairness Advocacy Day on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Booksellers participating in the advocacy day were: ABA President Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois; ABA Vice President Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas; David Didriksen of Willow Books & Cafe in Acton, Massachusetts, Liz Murphy of The Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Ohio; and Betsy Rider of Otto’s, A Booklover’s Paradise, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Joining the booksellers were ABA CEO Teicher and Dan Cullen, ABA content officer. In addition, Kathleen McHugh, executive director of American Specialty Toy Retailing Association; Fred Clements, executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Association; Bruce Thorne of the National Retail Hobby Stores Association, and Richard Hershman, vice president of  Government Relations for the National Association of College Stores all participated in the days meetings, as did retail members of the associations.