| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to the tax on sales, use, and other |
| 3 | transactions; creating s. 213.758, F.S.; authorizing the |
| 4 | department to contract to develop and implement the |
| 5 | Internet Sales Tax Automated Revenue Tracking program as a |
| 6 | system for collecting and administering sales and use |
| 7 | taxes; providing program requirements, procedures, and |
| 8 | criteria; requiring a report to the Governor and |
| 9 | Legislature; providing for disclosure of information under |
| 10 | the program; providing a penalty; providing for reducing |
| 11 | the rate of the state sales and use tax under certain |
| 12 | revenue certification circumstances; providing an |
| 13 | effective date. |
| 14 |
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| 15 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 16 |
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| 17 | Section 1. Section 213.758, Florida Statutes, is created |
| 18 | to read: |
| 19 | 213.758 System for sales and use tax collection and |
| 20 | administration by private or public vendors.- |
| 21 | (1) The department may enter into contracts pursuant to |
| 22 | the procedures established in chapter 287 with public or private |
| 23 | vendors to develop and implement a system for sales and use tax |
| 24 | collection and administration. The department shall retain |
| 25 | ownership of all intellectual property rights for any programs, |
| 26 | processes, methodologies, and algorithms, including, but not |
| 27 | limited to, all specially designed computer software for the |
| 28 | purpose of sales and use tax collection and administration. |
| 29 | Collections by such means shall be referred to as the Internet |
| 30 | Sales Tax Automated Revenue Tracking program or iSTART. The |
| 31 | amount of compensation paid to such vendors shall be based upon |
| 32 | a percentage of the sales and use tax collections made under the |
| 33 | system, on a per-transaction basis, or upon other grounds |
| 34 | determined through the contracting process. The system at a |
| 35 | minimum must be capable of determining the taxability of a |
| 36 | transaction, the appropriate tax rate to be applied to the |
| 37 | taxable transaction including any applicable local sales tax |
| 38 | option adopted, and the total tax due on the transaction; |
| 39 | collecting the total tax due on the transaction; and providing a |
| 40 | method for reporting and paying the tax collected on the |
| 41 | transaction to the department. |
| 42 | (2) On or before January 1 each year, the department shall |
| 43 | provide to the Governor and Cabinet, the Speaker of the House of |
| 44 | Representatives, and the President of the Senate a report on any |
| 45 | sales and use tax collection and administration system developed |
| 46 | and implemented pursuant to this section. The report shall |
| 47 | include information on the number of vendors participating in |
| 48 | such system, the amount of sales and use tax collected by the |
| 49 | vendors, and the amount of compensation paid to such vendors. |
| 50 | (3) Disclosure of information under this section shall be |
| 51 | pursuant to a written agreement between the executive director |
| 52 | of the department and such vendors, and the department shall be |
| 53 | subject to the provisions of s. 213.053. Violation of such |
| 54 | agreement is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as |
| 55 | provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. |
| 56 | (4) When total sales and use tax collections by the |
| 57 | department using the software developed under iSTART are |
| 58 | certified by the director of the department to be at least $5 |
| 59 | billion, the state sales and use tax rate shall be rolled back |
| 60 | by reducing the applicable rate by 1 percent, notwithstanding |
| 61 | the rate specified in chapter 212, and the rollback shall remain |
| 62 | in effect for each year that iSTART collections are certified to |
| 63 | be at least $5 billion. |
| 64 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010. |