Senate Votes to Bring Marketplace Fairness Act to the Floor

By a 74-20 margin yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted to move forward with the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 743), which would empower states to collect online sales taxes. The Hill reported that the "strong vote to end debate suggests supporters of the bill are likely to see it win approval in the Senate this week."

"It's only fair to the businesses across America, if they are required to collect sales tax on their sales, that those competing with them ought to do the same," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.), a leading co-sponsor of the bill.

The debate has created some unusual alliances in the Senate, where divisions usually run in predictable lines. Amazon now supports a national law forcing online retailers to collect sales.

Amazon's role as the main opponent of such a law has been taken by competitor eBay, whose CEO sent a letter over the weekend to its millions of retailers, urging them to write to Congress to protest the bill--and seeking to raise the $1 million exemption on sales tax collection to $10 million. States with no sales tax, including Oregon and New Hampshire, are against the bill, too, leading to the odd situation of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who is married to Nancy Bass Wyden, co-owner of the Strand in New York City, denouncing the bill. Conversely, some conservative senators are supporting the bill in a bid to help bricks-and-mortar retailers and revenue-starved state and local governments.

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