Florida Senate - 2010                                    SB 2552
       
       
       
       By Senator Altman
       
       
       
       
       24-01804A-10                                          20102552__
    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
    4         the department to contract to develop and implement
    5         the Internet Sales Tax Automated Revenue Tracking
    6         program as a system for collecting and administering
    7         sales and use taxes; providing program requirements,
    8         procedures, and criteria; requiring a report to the
    9         Governor and Legislature; providing for disclosure of
   10         information under the program; providing a penalty;
   11         providing for reducing the rate of the state sales and
   12         use tax under certain revenue certification
   13         circumstances; providing an effective date.
   14  
   15  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   16  
   17         Section 1. Section 213.758, Florida Statutes, is created to
   18  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 the
   22  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.