eBay Vice President and Deputy General Counsel (and fellow Team eBay Movember member), Tod Cohen, testified this morning before the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. In his remarks, Cohen stressed the importance of this issue for small and medium-sized retailers across the US and outlined Constitutional limitations on U.S. states’ authority to collect sales taxes in e-commerce. (I wish I could have been in the room to watch… it’s the last day of Movember so his cookie duster was in full effect as he spoke to the Committee).

In all seriousness, this is an issue that eBay feels very strongly about and if you are an online seller – regardless of size or retail venue – I highly recommend reading all of Tod’s testimony. Here’s an excerpt:

Among those that use the eBay platform are hundreds of thousands of U.S. Small businesses and entrepreneurs located in every state and congressional district across the country. The Internet and the eBay Marketplace provide these small businesses and entrepreneurs with relatively low-cost access to potential buyers far outside the limits of their traditional geographic footprint. eBay cares about the remote sales tax impacts on these small business retailers and entrepreneurs because they have always been at the heart of the eBay business model. Our success is tied directly to their success. The ability of small business retail to play a meaningful role in the 21st Century retail marketplace is critical for expanding retail competition, developing new businesses and better serving consumers…

… To conclude, eBay’s focus has been to protect small business retailers using the Internet from any new onerous tax burdens. eBay supports robust protections for small business retailers in any new remote sales tax regime, and will continue to urge members of the committee to do the same.

You can find out more about the Internet Sales Tax Law on eBay Main Street.

Cheers,
RBH