The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 will allow US states to force online retailers to collect a tax on the sale of online products or services.
The Act is being introducing in an attempt to level the tax playing field between the high street and online-only retailers, amid criticism about the amount of tax paid by internet groups.
In the UK, Mr King is one of a number of high-profile retailers who have warned that businesses rates, a tax on commercial property, are crippling the high street because there is no equivalent for online retailers.
“The burden of taxation falls very heavily on bricks and mortar retailers,” Mr King said. “I think we need to rebalance the tax burden.”
Business rates are costing the retail industry more than £7bn a year and increased by an inflation-linked £175m in April. The British Retail Consortium, the trade body, has held talks with the Treasury about their concerns after a string of high street retailers collapsed into administration earlier in the year.
Mr King said the Marketplace Fairness Act was designed “specifically to address this issue”. Shop owners in the US have backed the tax, although it has proved controversial because of concerns about how the tax can be collected when online transactions occur across state and national boundaries.
Bollocks. The MFA insists upon the collection of sales taxes, not business rates. Online retailers in hte UK already collect VAT. Thus it is not the same thing at all.
By the way. Online retailers also already pay business rates. It\’s just they pay them on their warehouses: because that\’s the business premises they use instead of high street retail space.
Amazingly, I don\’t pay business rates on high street retail space either for the simple reason that I don\’t use it. Funny that, eh?
