Are the Tax-Free Days for Online Sales Over?

The Senate is now considering a bill that would allow states to collect sales tax on purchases made over the Internet.

Tire dealers in certain states have long complained about losing sales to online options because of the sales tax differential.

If passed and signed into law, the bill would enable states to collect an estimated $23 billion per year in sales taxes on online purchases.

The Marketplace Fairness Act would bypass a 20-year-old prohibition on states collecting sales tax on catalog sales, and by extension e-commerce, according to a Scripps Howard report.

The bill would also help clean up the nation’s varied sales tax policies and collection programs. Under the bill, in order for a state to demand e-commerce sales tax collection, the state must first make certain tax-collection processes compatible with each other.

Retailers with less than $500,000 in annual sales would be exempt, the report said, and the bill would “give the 45 states with sales taxes the power to require all remote sellers to collect state and local taxes under simplified rules.”

A surprising supporter of the new legislative effort is Amazon.com. Apparently resigned to the eventuality, Amazon.com supports the bill because it will help create uniform, national standards that would apply sales tax levels and collections equally.

Ascot Supply Corporation, based in Newnan, Georgia, has selected Mark Paquette for the newly created position of vice president. In this position, Ascot Supply said Paquette will oversee the growth of the company's products, corporate profitability, manage marketing and advertising and assume many other responsibilities.

He will work under the direction of current President David Kessler and officially begin his new role on June 3. Paquette joined the tire and automotive industry in the early 1980s at his father's tire shop, and his contributions to Mohawk Rubber Sales were instrumental in the company's growth and eventual sale to Myers Tire Supply in 2021, according to Ascot Supply. Paquette eventually was given a promotion to the role of director of operations at Myers Tire Supply.