RICHMOND — Retailers held a news conference Tuesday to explain why Virginia should require their competitors on the Internet to collect the same sales taxes it demands from stores like theirs.
“We all know, instinctively, that it is fair to force all retailers, whether online or in brick-and-mortar stores, to collect the sales tax. That is the law,” said Danny Givens, owner of Givens Books in Lynchburg.
Givens made the trip to Richmond to join the Virginia Retail Federation’s push for approval of SB 660, a measure that faces a tough hearing today in a House of Delegates subcommittee. The committee chairman, Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, has said he opposes the bill. So does Gov. Bob McDonnell.
The Northern Virginia Technology Council argues that the bill could hurt online businesses in Virginia that earn money when people viewing the Virginia-based Internet sites click on a link to Amazon.com and similar domains.
“Brick-and-mortar stores are losing business year by year, continually, to online retailers who don’t have to collect sales tax,” Givens said, and if Virginia doesn’t start taxing the Internet sellers now it will have to do so later because its sales-tax revenues will erode in coming years.
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