2000/04/26 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

April26,2000 WHEREAS,the primary barrier to collecting taxes on remote sales is the Supreme Court's ruling in Quill v.North Dakota.which defers to Congress, and only Congress,to authorize states to require remote vendors to collect crus in a manner that does not unduly burden interstate commerce;and WHEREAS,current laws create a competitive disadvantage and great inequities between merchants who sell from traditional"brick and mortar"establishments and Nose who sell from electronic stores;and WHEREAS,this migration of sales to the Internet is restricting the ability of state and local governments and school districts to collect taxes which finance essential public services including but not limited to police,fire,emergency medical service,education,said services,infrastmcrore development,and local healthcare:and WHEREAS,the United States Constitution reserves far the states the right to collect and impose taxes;and WHEREAS,Ar states and the District of Columbia collect over 40 percem of overall revenue from edea taxa to food vital public services;and WHEREAS,a resent University of Tennessee Body estimates Nat state sales tax revenue losses in 2003 will exceed SIO billion;and WHEREAS,the City of Everett,Washington,has determined that an increasing reduction in its sales taxeco a could result in a significant reduction of essential public services;and WHEREAS,the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce,established by the Internet Tax Freedom Act,failed to address,in a fain and equitable manner, the growing volume of tax-free sales transactions occurring ova the Intern, which have put"brick and motor"stores ata competitive disadvantage;and WHEREAS,the Commission's report to Congress doe not effectively address the tax losses state and local governments will experience if the Internet becomes a permanently tax-free retail market;and 160