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Durbin Says Online Stores Enjoy Unfair Advantage

Jim Browne
/
WGLT

The growing shift to on-line shopping is hurting bricks and mortar stores as consumers buy on-line, in part, to avoid paying retail sales taxes. Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, says Congress should pass the Marketplace Fairness Act. The bill would give states the ability to collect sales taxes for on-line purchases. "It's really not fair to say to that store down the block that's paying the rent, and paying the property taxes and collecting the sales taxes, we're going to put them at a disadvantage to their Internet competitors." Durbin says without the law, state and local governments are also losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars. He says that leaves some governments with few options, but to increase other taxes or cut needed community services. He says the most recent Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend, saw sales at stores and shopping malls flat from last year. But he says on-line sales were up 30-percent across the country. The bill passed the Senate in the last Congress, but even with bi-partisan support, it remains stuck in a House committee in this Congress.

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