Florida Senate - 2009 (NP) SR 2806
By Senator Lynn
7-04784-09 20092806__
1 Senate Resolution
2 A resolution addressed to the Congress of the United
3 States, urging the Congress to enact legislation to
4 authorize states that have complied with the
5 Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement to require
6 out-of-state sellers to collect each such state’s
7 sales and use tax.
8
9 WHEREAS, the opinions of the United States Supreme Court in
10 the 1967 National Bellas Hess decision and the 1992 Quill
11 decision denied the several states the present authority to
12 require the collection of sales and use tax on the sale of goods
13 by out-of-state sellers that have no physical presence in the
14 taxing state, and
15 WHEREAS, those opinions of the United States Supreme Court
16 do acknowledge that Congress may confer upon the several states
17 the authority to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales
18 and use tax on these remote sales, and
19 WHEREAS, the present lack of state authority threatens the
20 continued ability of states that are dependent on such revenue
21 to rely on sales and use taxes as a stable revenue source for
22 state and local governments, and
23 WHEREAS, estimated state revenues lost as a result of the
24 lack of such authority may have been as much as $ 16.1 billion
25 in 2003 and such losses are expected to continue to climb, and
26 WHEREAS, this estimated revenue loss may have cost Florida
27 hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost tax revenue, and
28 WHEREAS, local Florida retailers who make sales at their
29 Florida stores experience a tax inequity under the de facto
30 sales tax exemption for Internet and mail order sales because
31 these traditional “bricks and mortar” businesses must apply and
32 collect sales tax while out-of-state sellers having no physical
33 presence in this state need not, and
34 WHEREAS, there exists an unfair “digital divide” under
35 which higher-income households, which are much more likely to
36 have the resources to own a computer, have Internet access and a
37 credit card to make de facto exempt, remote purchases, while
38 low-income consumers without the resources to shop online or by
39 mail, and who are consigned to shopping in local stores, bear
40 more than their fair share of state sales tax, and
41 WHEREAS, since 1999, state legislators, governors, local
42 elected officials, state tax administrators, and representatives
43 of the private sector have worked to develop a Streamlined Sales
44 and Use Tax Collection System for the 21st Century, and
45 WHEREAS, between 2001 and 2002, 35 states, including
46 Florida, enacted legislation expressing the intent of the state
47 to simplify the states’ sales and use tax collection systems and
48 to participate in multistate discussions to finalize and ratify
49 an interstate agreement to streamline the collection of state
50 sales and use taxes, and
51 WHEREAS, on November 12, 2002, these states unanimously
52 ratified the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which
53 substantially simplifies state and local sales tax systems,
54 removes the burdens to interstate commerce that were of concern
55 to the Supreme Court, and protects state sovereignty, and
56 WHEREAS, the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement
57 provides the states with a blueprint to create a simplified
58 sales and use tax collection system that, when implemented,
59 allows justification for Congress to overturn the Bellas Hess
60 and Quill decisions under its federal Commerce Clause powers,
61 and
62 WHEREAS, by July 1, 2004, 21 states representing more than
63 35 percent of the total population of the United States had
64 enacted legislation to bring their states’ sales and use tax
65 statutes into compliance with the agreement, and
66 WHEREAS, Florida is resolved to address the complexities of
67 the current sales and use tax collection system, and
68 WHEREAS, the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act,
69 S.2152 by Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and the Streamlined Sales
70 Tax Simplification Act, S.2153 by Senator Byron Dorgan of North
71 Dakota, were introduced in the last session of Congress to grant
72 those states that comply with the agreement the authority to
73 require all sellers, regardless of whether they have physical
74 presence in the taxing state, to collect those states’ sales and
75 use taxes, and
76 WHEREAS, the House Majority Whip, Congressman Roy Blunt of
77 Missouri, has termed this federal legislation to be “fiscal
78 relief for the states that does not cost the federal government
79 a single cent” and ensures the viability of the sales and use
80 tax as a state revenue source, NOW, THEREFORE,
81
82 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
83
84 That the Senate urges the United States Congress to enact
85 legislation to give states that have complied with the
86 Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement the authority to require
87 out-of-state sellers to collect their sales and use tax.
88 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution, with
89 the Seal of the Senate affixed, be transmitted to the Speaker of
90 the United States House of Representatives, the President of the
91 United States Senate, and each member of the Florida
92 congressional delegation.