Main Street merchants continue push for fairness

ALBANY, NY (03/12/2018) (readMedia)-- The Retail Council of New York State today urged the state Legislature's leaders to close the 'Marketplace' sales tax loophole as state budget negotiations move forward.

"The Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Quill v. North Dakota doesn't even mention the words 'internet' or 'e-commerce,'" Council President and CEO Ted Potrikus wrote to lawmakers. "Neither existed at the time, but Quill, which protected the mail-order sector's then-$180 billion sales, created the tax shelter under which e-commerce soon exploded."

"E-commerce today commands sales of some $6 trillion," he wrote. "That's a mere 25 years after Quill and a decade after New York's bipartisan, landmark click-through nexus law that opponents promised would irreversibly chill e-commerce and fail constitutional muster. New York's law survived legal challenges all the way to the Supreme Court and was replicated in nearly two dozen states."

"E-commerce has survived pretty well since that 2008 promise of certain death and, today, is huge and robust, agile and smart, and well past any claim of fragile infancy that needs a tax shelter to survive to sell another day."

He added, "Our brick-and-mortar members today use the Amazon Marketplace and similar platforms to get their products in front of potential customers around the world. The Marketplace is a valuable and valued tool that, for New York's Main Street, would be made even more so through the simple principle of fairness applied through this proposal."

We attach a copy of the letter in full.

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Retail Council of New York State | 258 State Street | Albany, New York | 12210 | www.retailcouncilnys.com