October 4, 2001
Retailers applaud passage of streamlined sales tax bill
LANSING – The Michigan Retailers Association (MRA) today praised the Michigan Legislature for enacting House Bill 5080, allowing Michigan to work with other states to simplify sales and use tax laws.
"This legislation is a critical step toward providing fairness for Main Street retailers and greater convenience for consumers," said Larry Meyer, MRA’s chairman and CEO. "In addition, it can provide additional benefits for every child and parent in Michigan by protecting funding for local schools."
"This is a battle that MRA has been fighting for more than two decades," Meyer continued. "Lawmakers are to be commended for making significant progress toward leveling the playing field for Michigan–based retailers, who are put at a competitive disadvantage with out-of-state merchants who sell through catalogs and the Internet."
The sales tax streamlining process is a critical first step toward ensuring remote sellers collect and remit state sales and use tax. Because Michigan-based retailers must collect the sales tax and remote sellers are not, Main Street retailers are faced with a six-percent competitive disadvantage. Although consumers are required by law to pay the tax on their own, most do not. And because the lion’s share of sales and use tax revenues are dedicated to K-12 education funding, schools are losing funding as catalog and Internet sales rise.
"Lawmakers were able to disregard all the false information circulated about this issue and enact wise public policy. We deeply appreciate the leadership of Sen. Joanne Emmons (R-Big Rapids) and Rep. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City), as well as Gov. Engler and his administration," Meyer said.
The Michigan Retailers Association is the unified voice of retailing in Michigan and the nation’s largest state trade association of general merchandise retailers. MRA’s more than 5,500 retail business members operate more than 12,000 stores across the state
