Close this menu

Bloomberg BNA – Wait, Wait: Congress Eyes State Digital Taxes, Wayfair Mulls Settlement (2)

Bloomberg BNA – Wait, Wait: Congress Eyes State Digital Taxes, Wayfair Mulls Settlement (2)

It’s unclear which of those will be on the table at the Judiciary Committee hearing, but “the committee is tuning-in to the growing chorus of state tax collectors demanding back taxes, interest, and penalties,” Steve DelBianco, president and CEO of NetChoice Inc., told Bloomberg Tax. “There’s enough noise here for Congress to step in and say, stop the music.”

DelBianco said in a statement late July 23 that “because of Wayfair, businesses have no clear test to determine whether they are obligated to pay a foreign state’s sales tax.

“The Commerce Clause is just as necessary now as when the constitution was written, and Congress must protect interstate commerce in the digital age,” DelBianco continued. “The time to act is now, and the longer Congress leaves the state tax playpen unsupervised, the worse the mess will be for American small businesses and consumers.”

He said the U.S. Supreme Court in Wayfair “misunderstood the true audit liability faced by America’s small businesses and there’s no guarantee that tax software services will be paid for by the states.”