Lamar Whitman Posts

We’ve written in the past about legislation that would require all businesses marketing goods or services to collect sales tax on behalf of each state into which the business sells products or services. Our main concern has always been the additional compliance burden this would place on all business, disproportionately affecting small businesses. Late last week, House Judiciary Committee (HJC) Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) set out his seven “Basic Principles on Remote ...

Continuing efforts to gather support for S. 193, “the Startup Innovation Credit Act of 2013,” we’re urging tech SMBs and entrepreneurs to participate in the TechVoice “Tweet Support for Startups” on October 30. All TechVoice members, as well as their member companies, will be encouraged to tweet their senators and Senate staff to ask for support and co-sponsorship of the legislation. Because the companion bill has not yet been introduced in the House, Tweet Day will ...

Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) took part in a TechVoice event on August 19 in Charlotte, NC, co-sponsored by CompTIA, the North Carolina Technology Association and the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. During the hour-long session, McHenry fielded questions from moderators Melanie Chernoff, public policy manager at Red Hat, Inc., and Ron Culler, CTO at Secure Designs, Inc. The topics ranged from cybersecurity and data breach to tax reform, and McHenry showed a strong commitment to and understan ...

CompTIA recently submitted testimony to the Senate Small Business Committee for a roundtable discussion on the effects of tax reform on small businesses. The event featured an open discussion on tax reform by representatives of the small business community. The Senate Finance Committee will ultimately consider the record of this event as part of its tax reform deliberations. CompTIA’s testimony called for tax code simplification; reduction of tax burden on SMB IT firms; growth and innovati ...

Yesterday, the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act (“MFA”) by a vote of 69-27.  The MFA compels online and catalog retailers ("remote sellers"), no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction and remit to states where the customer resides. States are only granted the authority to collect these taxes after they have simplified their sales tax laws. This legislation (S. 743) now moves to the House, where its fate is less certain. &n ...

Interest is growing in the "Marketplace Fairness Act" recently introduced in the House by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) (H.R. 684) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) (S. 336). This legislation would require businesses to collect and remit state sales taxes on sales of goods and services made into other states. For states that have a sales tax, the Marketplace Fairness Act is a good thing. But for businesses, this legislation will result in additional compliance costs, and these costs will dis ...

Last week, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in a case brought by Amazon and Overstock.com that non-resident sellers offering products through a New York website will be required to collect New York sales taxes on sales made into the state. This collection requirement would apply even though the out-of-state business has no other presence in the state. In its ruling, the court analogized selling through a New York-based website to having a physical present in the state: “ … if a v ...

The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means is continuing its work to develop a consensus on tax reform. Last month, chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and ranking member Sandy Levin (D-MI) announced that 11 committee working groups would be formed to develop discussion drafts on various aspects of tax reform. Just last week, one of these working groups issued a Discussion Draft on Tax Reform for Small Businesses. While this draft does include a permanent extension of section 179 small business expensing, ...

A new version of Startup 2.0 was introduced in both the House and Senate last week. Startup 3.0 is co-sponsored by Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Representatives Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Startup 3.0 continues the mission of its predecessor legislation, intending to boost our economic recovery by providing greater support for high-paying, high-skilled jobs in science, technology, engineering and math ...

A long-awaited provision that will benefit woman-owned small businesses seeking federal government contract opportunities is included in amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 3254), which passed the Senate on Dec. 4. CompTIA has actively advocated for this fix, which will correct an anomaly in this federal program.The Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program sets aside five percent of federal prime and subcontracts for women-owned small businesses. Under the current ...