Online Merchants Guild Testimony Gains Commitment from California Assemblywoman Autumn Burke to Address Back Taxes in New Legislation
February 27th, 2019
On Monday February 25th, 2019, Online Merchants Guild was in Sacramento with our lobbying firm and outside counsel giving testimony before the Revenue and Taxation Assembly on California’s Marketplace Sales Tax Bill AB 147.
As a result of our testimony, Assemblywoman Burke committed openly and spontaneously to address the back tax issue that Amazon sellers are facing.
Online Merchants Guild will be back on Sacramento on Monday to follow up, during which time I will be meeting with the California Department of Tax and Fees Administration (“CDTFA”).
If you would like to see Online Merchants Guild in action please click here. At 38 minutes and 20 seconds our outside counsel speaks, followed by me speaking on behalf of Online Merchants Guild.
This is a huge step forward in the fight against back taxes, and I hope that it helps you understand why we need an organization like Online Merchants Guild.
If you haven’t already please join by clicking here.
If you have joined already and would like to increase your contribution, please click here to join again, and we will update your membership.
Finally, I’d like to end this email with an excerpt from an article by Bloomberg law reporter Laura Mahoney who was at the hearing on Monday. This is how she described the situation:
Other California News
Lawmakers will also pursue a separate measure to relieve third-party Fulfilled by Amazon sellers of taxes, penalties, and interest going back as far as eight years if Amazon has stored their inventory in California.
The tax department has sent thousands of letters to FBA sellers notifying them that Amazon’s storage of their inventory in California warehouses created sales and use tax nexus for them. The department says the enforcement efforts with FBA sellers stem from their physical presence in the state and are separate from actions related to Wayfair.
State Treasurer Fiona Ma, the sponsor of A.B. 147, told Bloomberg Tax she is drafting a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) asking him to back the proposal to relieve the small online sellers of past liabilities. Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D) and Sen. Mike McGuire (D), the bill’s co-authors and the legislative tax committee chairs, are part of that effort. The Online Merchants Guild, representing the sellers, is pushing for the relief.