The folks at eBay are recruiting their users in the fight against federal state tax legislation.
CEO John Donahoe started emailing the auction site’s users on Sunday morning. According to Donahoe, the Marketplace Fairness Act will end up causing quite a bit of trouble for its merchants in the long run. He’s hoping this push will help squash the legislation .
The eBay CEO hopes that Congress will make changes to the Marketplace Fairness Act after recruited users send messages to their legislators.
States currently have the power to require tax collection from retailers within their borders. If the legislation passes, then merchants from out-of-state could be forced to collect sales tax. However, those who generate less than $1 million in business from out-of-state sales would be exempt.
Donahoe believes that the exemption should be extended to retailers who make less than $10 million and have fewer than 50 employees.
“This legislation treats you and big multi-billion dollar online retailers – such as Amazon – exactly the same. Those fighting for this change refuse to acknowledge that the burden on businesses like yours is far greater than for a big national retailer,” the eBay CEO wrote in his email.
The auction site also attempted to recruit users through a series of messages on Twitter. Donahoe is joined in his quest to shut down the legislation by the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform.
However, a number of high-profile companies support the Marketplace Fairness Act . Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Gap, and Walmart all support the legislation. Governors from 29 bi-partisan states are also backing the federal sales tax.
Do you think #SmallBiz owners should be forced to act as tax collectors in all states? Neither do we. bit.ly/11mozYn
— eBay Main Street (@ebaygr) April 21, 2013
Congress is expected to vote on the sales tax in the coming days.
What do you think about eBay recruiting its users to help fight the sales tax legislation? Do you support the Marketplace Fairness Act?
[Image via Wikimedia Commons ]
