Internet Commerce

Despite the aggressive efforts of proponents, the 112th session of Congress closed without a vote on sales tax fairness legislation. Sponsors of the Marketplace Fairness Act are now focusing on passage in the new session of Congress.

The Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Penguin Group (USA) in the antitrust suit brought in April against Apple and five major publishers with agency model pricing for e-books.

Last week, the National Governors Association wrote to the Senate Committee on Finance to urge passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832) this year.

On Tuesday, December 11, Gov. Deval Patrick announced that Amazon.com will collect and remit sales tax in Massachusetts starting next fall and that the online retailer will work with the state toward enactment of federal legislation to resolve the sales tax issue.

With the 112th Congress set to conclude at year’s end, an increasing number of newspaper editorial pages have been urging the passage of federal sales tax fairness legislation.

Lawmakers in Michigan and Florida recently introduced affiliate nexus bills that would require remote retailers with a presence in the state via online affiliates acting as sales agents to collect and remit sales tax.

The International Council of Shopping Centers has released the results of a national poll that found a majority of Americans support the Congressional effort to require online retailers to collect sales tax at the point-of-purchase.

On October 26, in its SEC quarterly filing, Amazon.com announced that, as part of a settlement with the state of Arizona, on February 1, 2013, the company would begin collecting and remitting transaction privilege tax (TPT, Arizona’s sales tax) to Arizona on in-state purchases.

Beginning this Saturday, California consumers who shop at Amazon.com will notice a big change when they go to the checkout page to pay for their orders: the online retailer will be collecting sales tax on their orders.

The push for sales tax fairness in California and Pennsylvania, which came to a head in 2011, will bear fruit next month.