Dan Douglas
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“We have committed every one of our in-state brick-and-mortar retailers to an unfair disadvantage by allowing these online retailers not to collect and remit sales tax.” — Rep. Dan Douglas
As of press time, a bill in the Arkansas Legislature requiring out-of-state companies to collect sales taxes on online purchases by Arkansans still had a fighting chance. The struggle over the proposal is a prime example of making the perfect the enemy of the good.
The state Senate has already approved Senate Bill 140, by Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, but the proposal had gotten hung up in the House Revenue & Taxation Committee, which approved it Thursday on the fourth attempt.
Some conservative legislators oppose the bill as just another new tax. It’s not; it would simply enforce collection of a tax that Arkansas taxpayers are supposed to pay but rarely do.
Supporters of the bill cross party lines but have different agendas. Democrats want to ensure the revenue goes to worthy recipients such as pre-K and rural emergency services instead of general revenue, while Republicans would rather see tax cuts or increased highway funding.
But Rep. Dan Douglas, the bill’s sponsor in the House, wisely noted last week that the fuss over what to do with the money — estimated at from $40 million to $200 million a year — is a waste of time when the measure hasn’t even been passed. “We might put more to highways. We might put more to some of these special projects that was in this amendment or we might decide to give a tax cut, on the income tax, back to the citizens of the state of Arkansas. But we can’t do a damn one of them unless we pass this bill,” said the plain-spoken Douglas, R-Bentonville.
Douglas called collecting the tax a matter of fairness. Right again.
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