HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1007
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Urging the members of the South Dakota Congressional
delegation to sponsor and support the Marketplace Fairness Act and the Marketplace Equity Act.
WHEREAS, the 1967 Bellas Hess and the 1992 Quill Supreme Court decisions denied states the
authority to require the collection of sales and use taxes by businesses that have no physical presence
in the taxing state; and
WHEREAS, the ability of consumers to make purchases from remote sellers that have no
physical presence has become significantly more accessible via the internet, and the sales tax base
is eroding as consumers are altering their purchasing habits; and
WHEREAS, the constraints imposed by the Supreme Court's decisions threaten the future
viability of the sales tax as a revenue source for state and local governments in this changing market
for consumer goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the federal government continues to shift program and financial responsibilities to
the states, but the inaction of Congress to permit states to require sales and use tax collection on
remote sales limits the states' ability to raise revenues for the funding of such programs from one of
the major state revenue sources; and
WHEREAS, if Congress were to act on this matter, it would provide some fiscal relief for the
states without costing the federal government a single cent or otherwise affect the federal budget;
and
WHEREAS, the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (Agreement) provided the states
with one viable blueprint to create a simplified and more uniform sales and use tax collection system.
The states and the business community have worked for over ten years to simplify state and local
sales and use tax systems by establishing common definitions, sourcing rules, and other factors to
provide a streamlined system for the twenty-first century; and
WHEREAS, small businesses that have less than five hundred thousand dollars in gross annual
receipts are exempt from the provisions of the Agreement; and
WHEREAS, the Legislature of South Dakota and our colleagues in the other states have shown
the resolve to acknowledge the complexities of the current sales and use tax collection system, have
worked with the business community to formulate a truly simplified and streamlined collection
system, and have shown the political will to enact the necessary changes to make the streamlined
collection system the law; and
WHEREAS, by June 2011, twenty-one states, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming, have enacted legislation to bring their states' sales and use tax statutes into compliance
with the Agreement; and
WHEREAS, the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee has
estimated that the states and local governments will lose as much as $14.8 billion in fiscal year 2012
because they were not able to collect taxes on remote sales, a figure that increases to $23 billion if
mail order sales are included according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the
Center has estimated that South Dakota will lose as much as $38.8 million in fiscal year 2012; and
WHEREAS, the Marketplace Fairness Act has been introduced in the United States Senate and
the Marketplace Equity Act has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives, and
both bills grant those states that comply with the Agreement the authority to require sellers,
regardless of nexus, to collect those states' sales and use taxes; and
WHEREAS, the Marketplace Fairness Act and the Marketplace Equity Act for the first time
would provide a comprehensive national solution to the sales tax collection by permitting states that
are unable to join the Agreement to enact sales and use tax simplifications and be granted authority
to require collection of taxes on remote sales, thereby removing the potential for competitive
advantage among the states; and
WHEREAS, the Marketplace Fairness Act and the Marketplace Equity Act will create fair
market competition between traditional and online only retailers which will enable South Dakota
businesses to grow and expand resulting in more jobs and continued economic growth for South
Dakota; and
WHEREAS, the Marketplace Fairness Act and the Marketplace Equity Act will allow South
Dakota small businesses to compete fairly in order to sustain and increase the fifty-two thousand
retail jobs throughout the state; and
WHEREAS, until Congress and the President enact legislation to permit states to require
collection of tax on remote sales, participation by remote sellers will only ever be voluntary making
it unlikely that the states will close the sales and use tax gap between what is owed on remote
transactions and what is collected:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the Legislature
of South Dakota calls upon the members of our congressional delegation, Senators Tim Johnson and
John Thune, to support the Marketplace Fairness Act and Representative Kristi Noem to support the
Marketplace Equity Act; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature of South Dakota expresses its appreciation
and gratitude to Senator Tim Johnson for cosponsoring the Marketplace Fairness Act and to
Representative Kristi Noem for cosponsoring the Marketplace Equity Act; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature of South Dakota urges President Barack
Obama to sign into law legislation granting the states authority to collect sales and use tax on remote
sales, upon its passage by the Congress.
Adopted by the House of Representatives,
February 8, 2012
Concurred in by the Senate,
February 10, 2012
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Val Rausch
Speaker of the House
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Karen Gerdes
Chief Clerk of the House
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Matt Michels
President of the Senate
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Fee Jacobsen
Secretary of the Senate
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