Rounds Cosponsors Marketplace Fairness Act

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, is an original cosponsor of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2017. This legislation would give states the right to collect the sales and use taxes they are owed under current law from out-of-state businesses or online retailers.

“The Marketplace Fairness Act allows us to collect sales taxes from internet sellers just like retailers collect sales taxes on Main Street,” said Rounds. “Brick and mortar stores are the businesses that provide good-paying jobs to South Dakotans, pay local property taxes, sponsor community baseball leagues, send their kids and grandkids to South Dakota schools and invest in the future of our state. We have an opportunity to level the playing field for them. Sales taxes pay for the education of our kids and in order to keep rates low, we need as broad of a base as possible to keep it fair.”

The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2017 would grant states the right to require that out-of-state businesses, such as those selling online or through catalogs, collect state sales taxes on purchases sold into their states. Currently, states are unable to collect these taxes on purchases from remote businesses so the tax is often not paid. This sales tax loophole treats out-of-state retailers different than local brick-and-mortar businesses, creating a price disadvantage.

This legislation was introduced by Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Dick Durban (D-Ill.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). It was cosponsored by Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).   

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