Letters to the Editor: Reaction to Marketplace Fairness Act Editor's Note

Here's the reaction that we received regarding last issue's Editor's Note, which focused on the highly controversial Marketplace Fairness Act (i.e., the online sales tax law) that's currently being debated in Congress. Thanks to all who sumbmitted letters!

The Marketplace Fairness Act is awful, especially for small businesses. I work for an online and catalog arts-and-crafts company, and our primary market is churches (mainly down South) that do Vacation Bible School, with a small presence in libraries, schools and hospitals. Our biggest issue is how are we supposed to handle tax-exempt organizations.

We're located in Tonawanda, N.Y., which is right outside Buffalo. New York law states that we have to physically store a copy of an organization's tax-exempt form. We're also aware that each state has its own rules and regulations on how to handle tax exemption. How are we supposed to know all of them, and how are we going to handle all of that paperwork!?! On top of that, how are we going to handle the 9,000+ sales tax codes. With 8 full-time employees, this bill is going to put a lot of unnecessary strain on us. Our only hope is that they raise the $1 million dollar sales threshold to $5 [million] or $10 million so that we're exempt from them bill.

Mary C. Cheney
Director of Marketing
Guildcraft Arts & Crafts