CS/HB 1443

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

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.