Internet sales tax bill faces tough sell in House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Traditional retailers and cash-strapped states face a tough sell in the House as they lobby Congress to limit tax-free shopping on the Internet.

The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass a bill that empowers states to collect sales taxes from Internet purchases. Under the bill, states could require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes when they sell products over the Internet, in catalogs, and through radio and TV ads. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Current law says states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the merchant has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

"This bill is about fairness," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor in the Senate. "It's about leveling the playing field between the brick and mortar and online companies and it's about collecting a tax that's already due. It's not about raising taxes."

The bill got bipartisan support in the Senate but faces opposition in the House, where some lawmakers regard it as a tax increase. Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation oppose the bill, and many Republicans have been wary of crossing them.

Supporters say the bill is not a tax increase. In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

"Obviously there's a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don't have to pay any taxes," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., the bill's main sponsor in the House. "I totally understand that, and I think a lot of our members understand that. There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has not commented publicly about the bill, giving supporters hope that he could be won over. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over the bill, has cited problems with the legislation but not rejected it outright.

"While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go," Goodlatte said in a statement. Without more uniformity in the bill, he said, "businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions."

Goodlatte said he's "open to considering legislation concerning this topic but these issues, along with others, would certainly have to be addressed."

Internet giant eBay led the fight against the bill in the Senate, along with lawmakers from states with no sales tax and several prominent anti-tax groups. The bill's opponents say it would put an expensive obligation on small businesses because they are not as equipped as national merchandisers to collect and remit sales taxes at the multitude of state rates.

Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

"The contentious debate in the Senate shows that a lot more work needs to be done to get the Internet sales tax issue right, including ensuring that small businesses using the Internet are protected from new burdens that harm their ability to compete and grow," said Brian Bieron, eBay's senior director of global public policy.

Some states have sales taxes as high as 7 percent, plus city and county taxes that can push the combined rate even higher.

Many governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to government estimates.

States lost a total of $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales, according to a study done for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which has lobbied for the bill. About half of that was lost from Internet sales; half from purchases made through catalogs, mail orders and telephone orders, the study said.

Supporters say the bill makes it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send it to individual counties or cities.

Opponents worry the bill would give states too much power to reach across state lines to enforce their tax laws. States could audit out-of-state businesses, impose liens on their property and, ultimately, sue them in state court.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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This is the end: Team of experts say humanity faces extinction

Are we our own greatest threat? A new scientific paper says technology could end humanity (Getty)The crazy man walking down the city street holding a sign that reads, “The end is near,” might just have a point.

A team of mathematicians, philosophers and scientists at Oxford University’s Institute for the Future of Humanity say there is ever-increasing evidence that the human race’s reliance on technology could in fact lead to our demise.

The group has a forthcoming paper entitled, “Existential Risk as Global Priority” (PDF) arguing that we face a real risk to our own existence. And not a slow demise in some distant, theoretical future. The end could come as soon as the next century.

"There is a great race on between humanity’s technological powers and our wisdom to use those powers well," institute director Nick Bostrom told MSN. "I’m worried that the former will pull too far ahead."

There’s something about the end of the world that we just can’t shake. Even with the paranoia of 2012 Mayan prophecies behind us, people still remain fascinated by the potential for an extinction level event. And popular culture is happy to indulge in our anxiety. This year alone, two major comedy films are set to debut (“World’s End” and “This is the End”, which take a humorous look at the end of the world scenarios.

Interestingly, Bostorm writes that well-known threats such as asteroids, supervolanic eruptions and earthquakes are not likely to threaten humanity in the near future. Even a nuclear explosion isn’t likely to wipe out the entire population, with enough people surviving to rebuild society.

“Empirical impact distributions and scientific models suggest that the likelihood of extinction because of these kinds of risk is extremely small on a time scale of a century or so,” he writes.

For its part, in 2012 NASA released a series of answers to frequently asked questions about the end of the world.

Instead, it’s the unknown factors behind innovative technologies that Bostrom says pose the greatest risk going forward.

In others, machines, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence could become our own worst enemy, if they aren’t already, with Bostrom calling them, “threats we have no track record of surviving".

"We are developing things that could go wrong in a profound way," Dr O'Heigeartaigh told the BBC in a recent interview. "With any new powerful technology we should think very carefully about what we know - but it might be more important to know what we don't have certainty about."

However, it’s not all bad news. Bostrom notes that while a lack of understanding surrounding new technology posts huge risks, it does not necessarily equate to our downfall.

“The Earth will remain habitable for at least another billion years. Civilization began only a few thousand years ago. If we do not destroy mankind, these few thousand years may be only a tiny fraction of the whole of civilized human history,” he writes.

“It turns out that the ultimate potential for Earth-originating intelligent life is literally astronomical.”

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Labor Sec. Nominee Faces Harsh GOP Scrutiny

Secretary of Labor nominee Thomas Perez faced two hours of intense scrutiny at his nomination hearing Thursday morning as he sought to alleviate Republican concerns over his role in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

At issue is a lengthy report released earlier this week in which GOP leaders accuse Perez of attempting to influence the city of St. Paul, Minn., to withdraw a housing discrimination case before it could be brought before the Supreme Court. In exchange, the Department of Justice agreed not to intervene in two whistleblower cases against St. Paul that could have won up to $200 million for taxpayers.

Sen. Lamar Alexander engaged Perez in a heated line of questioning, accusing Perez of doing "an extraordinary amount of wheeling and dealing."

"You have a duty to protect the money, a duty to protect the whistleblower, and at the same time, it seems to me that you're manipulating the legal process to try to get the result you want from the Supreme Court in a way that's inappropriate," Alexander, R-Tenn., said.

Perez defended his actions, saying DOJ chooses not to stay out of "a lot of different things."

"It was in the interest of justice and it was entirely appropriate to do so in the opinion of professional responsibility people and others," he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. "I believe the resolution reached in this case was in fact in the interest of justice."

Democratic senators had kind words for Perez. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., introduced him as "one of Maryland's favorite sons," saying "we believe he is the right man for the job."

Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., joined in the praise, adding "you have a very amazing, impressive, wide range of experience that you are bringing from a number of different agencies…You're something of a turn-around expert for public sector agencies, so thank you for that."

When asked what his very top priority would be should he be confirmed as Secretary of Labor, Perez had one answer: "jobs, jobs, jobs."

He expanded on his goals and priorities, including reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act, maintaining pension security, and spending his first 100 days as secretary on a listening tour of America, reaching out to small businesses and workers alike.

"The president has asked all of us to consider three questions in the decisions we make," Perez said. "How do we make America a magnet for jobs? How do we equip our people with the skills they need to succeed in those jobs, and how do we ensure that an honest day's work leads to a decent living?"

Perez concluded, "These questions are at the core of the mission of the Department of Labor, and if confirmed you have my word that I will keep them there."

The committee is expected to vote on Perez's nomination on Thursday, April 25.

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