Economy-Wrecking Taxes Coming Your Way

The 2017 legislative session is barely underway, and Governor Matt Mead is already threatening to raise your tax burden. Last week, news broke that Governor Mead had entered an agreement with Internet giant Amazon to collect sales taxes on all of your Internet purchases. If passed, this tax would destroy many upstarts and small businesses who can’t afford the added bureaucracy and tools needed to determine sales tax rates in every location where they have no physical presence. Those struggling to meet the demands would have to raise prices on their products to be able to afford new staff and expensive software to navigate the bureaucracy. Many of these businesses would simply be forced to stop selling to Wyoming citizens. Representatives — in lockstep with the Governor — have already passed H.B. 19 through committee, and they’re threatening to RAM it through the full House early THIS WEEK. It is URGENT you call your state representative RIGHT NOW, and demand they vote NO on H.B. 19. Click here to find out who represents you. Find your representative’s contact information here. Keeping ever-changing rates, bases, and collection methodologies would be very challenging for remote sellers, and would prevent some from selling to Wyoming consumers. This would limit the availability of products and services in our state! This issue is not just a threat in Wyoming, either. In fact, if some politicians get their way, state and local governments from New York to California would reach into Wyoming citizens’ wallets — taking more of your hard-earned money — and then distribute the spoils in their own states. They’re hoping a few “guinea pig” states will pass a patchwork of Internet sales tax laws so the U.S. Congress will be forced to provide a national, uniform, one-size-fits-all solution — a national Internet sales tax solution. See where this is going? I do, and I don’t like it. Compliance costs will be passed on to consumers — that’s YOU — so you’ll be forking over sales taxes to New York while paying higher prices for goods and services! This is just another excuse for power-hungry bureaucrats to pick your pocket. That’s why you simply must call your state representative RIGHT NOW, and demand they vote NO on H.B. 19. Click here to find out who represents you. Find your representative’s contact information here. Wyoming Campaign for Liberty opposes any legislation that seeks to hamper the unprecedented advances and prosperity the Internet has achieved. Requiring businesses to collect state and local sales tax on every single online transaction for orders shipped to Wyoming would mean they would have to track purchases in all of the states that passed such a law and know the tax rates in those states, counties, and cities. Can you imagine the burden this would impose on these small businesses? This has the makings of a bureaucratic nightmare! This is a much higher collection standard than that imposed on brick-and-mortar sellers, which are only required to collect at the rate of their physical location where it is relatively easy to know the tax rates. And then there are constitutional questions. Online sales tax legislation violates Supreme Court rulings requiring businesses to be physically present in the state in order to collect and remit sales taxes. And having states set national tax policy is an improper delegation of the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce. That’s why it’s so critical you call your state representative RIGHT NOW, and demand they vote NO on H.B. 19. Click here to find out who represents you. Find your representative’s contact information here. Imposing an Internet sales tax is a flawed idea that will wreak havoc on businesses in other states, hurt the economy of Wyoming, and make life worse for the businesses and families living here. So please call your state representative and ask your friends and family to do the same.