Florida Senate - 2014                                     SM 196
       
       
        
       By Senator Margolis
       
       
       
       
       
       35-00299-14                                            2014196__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging the House of Representatives to support passage
    4         of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, the 1967 Bellas Hess v. Illinois and the 1992
    7  Quill Corp. v. North Dakota Supreme Court decisions denied
    8  states the authority to require the collection of sales and use
    9  taxes by out-of-state sellers that have no physical presence in
   10  the taxing state, and
   11         WHEREAS, the combined weight of the inability to collect
   12  sales and use taxes due on remote sales through traditional
   13  carriers and the tax erosion from electronic commerce threatens
   14  the future viability of the sales tax as a stable revenue source
   15  for state and local governments, and
   16         WHEREAS, a report from the Center for Business and Economic
   17  Research at the University of Tennessee estimates that in fiscal
   18  year 2012, states lost more than $23 billion in uncollected
   19  sales tax revenues from out-of-state sales, and
   20         WHEREAS, the Marketplace Fairness Act was introduced in
   21  both houses of Congress to authorize each member state under the
   22  Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement to require all sellers
   23  not qualifying for a small-seller exception to collect and remit
   24  sales and use taxes with respect to remote sales and allow a
   25  state that is not a member state under the agreement to require
   26  sellers to collect and remit sales and use taxes with respect to
   27  remote sales sourced to such state if the state adopts and
   28  implements certain minimum simplification requirements, and
   29         WHEREAS, the United States Senate passed the Marketplace
   30  Fairness Act on May 6, 2013, by a vote of 69-27 and the
   31  President has indicated that he would sign the legislation, NOW,
   32  THEREFORE,
   33  
   34  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   35  
   36         That the State of Florida urges the United States House of
   37  Representatives to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 or
   38  similar legislation authorizing remote sales tax collection by
   39  states.
   40         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   41  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   42  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   43  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   44  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.