Big Box retailers have found foot soldiers willing to do bidding in HUGE rent seek.

Heads up!

Word on the street is that HB 4202 and HB 4203 are on the schedule for second reading today in the Michigan House of Representatives. That means it would be up for FINAL PASSAGE tomorrow. You can read below all the details about the bills. Bottom line, if they are enacted, you will be paying MORE taxes.

Please take a moment and contact your representative today. Let your opinion be known! These phone calls and emails do matter. They do affect how a representative votes.

Find your representative’s contact information here.

We will keep you posted of the progress (or lack therof) of these bills tomorrow.

House Bills 4202 (Kowall-R), and 4203 (VerHeulen-R), will impose new taxes on consumers in Michigan and will further burden online sellers, especially the mom and pop shops that operate out of a small store front office or the business owners home. They will be subjected by government to an abundance of new compliance requirements. It will stifle competition as many smaller competitors to the big guys (like Amazon) will likely be forced to downsize or worse yet, go out of business.

As reported at mackinac.org:

Both pieces of legislation ignore the direct benefits brick-and-mortar stores receive in exchange for the state sales taxes they collect; namely, the roads and other infrastructure that are not equally used by Internet retailers. Further, not every Internet retailer is a gigantic behemoth akin to Amazon or Overstock.com. Retailers who provide services from their respective home offices – and who barely scrape by under the current tax structure  of over 7,000 U.S. tax jurisdictions – would find the collecting and remittance of sales taxes in-state or nationwide cumbersome, expensive and potentially fatal to their business.

The Senate has recently voted SB 658 and SB 659 out of committee. These are the Senate versions of the House bills. They, too may be headed to the floor for a vote soon.

Read a letter from Americans for Tax Reform here. It includes this paragraph:

If history is a guide, the measure will put Michigan’s Internet advertisers out of work, fail to raise revenue for the state, and perpetuate whatever unfair tax playing field currently exists. In each state the affiliate nexus tax has been enacted, retailers have terminated affiliate contracts to avoid the unconstitutional tax, causing tens of thousands of in-state advertisers to go out of business. This also severs the out-of-state retailers’ nexus in Michigan so that no new tax is collected, rendering the intent – leveling the playing field – irrelevant.

These bills will do nothing to grow a business-friendly environment in Michigan. It will mean more government, more regulation, more compliance, and more tax collection. Please contact your legislators and ask them not to support HB 4202 and 4203. Find Rep. Kowall here and Rep. VerHeulen here. It is also important that you contact House leadership and ask them NOT to put these bills up for a vote. Please contact Speaker Bolger and Floor Leader Stamas. Ask them if they really want their legacy as they leave office to be passage of a new tax on Michigan citizens.

H/T Jack Hoogendyk

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