It’s Only Fair (Editorial)

Arkansas Business takes the names of legislative bills with a tablespoon of salt. The unctuousness of the title sometimes seems to be in direct proportion to the size of the boondoggle. But the Main Street Fairness Act really is about fairness to local retailers that have invested in bricks, mortar and Arkansas workers and have to compete with every company doing business on the Internet.

The Main Street Fairness Act – Senate Bill 738 – would require companies to collect and remit sales taxes on all sales made to Arkansans if they have operations in the state or have affiliate operations here.

It would be even fairer to require the collection of sales tax on all sales made for delivery in Arkansas, whether there’s a corporate "nexus" or not.

Legally speaking, we Arkansans are already duty-bound to report and remit the sales taxes due on our Internet purchases but, you know, we don’t. For that reason, SB738 would be a de facto tax increase at a time when the prevailing political wind is blowing hard against anything that increases government revenue.

Hardliners have to decide which is more important: their no-new-taxes pledge or removing the unfair advantage our current system offers to companies specifically because they are mainly taking money out of our state rather than investing in it.