Governor: In the name of FAIRNESS, you must be TAXED MORE!
Governor Asa Hutchinson says you need to be paying more money in Arkansas taxes. What reason did he give? Fairness.
Governor Hutchinson wants to increase your tax burden by imposing an internet sales tax. Currently an out-of-state seller with no facilities in Arkansas does not have to collect Arkansas’ sales tax. The Governor says this is not fair to Arkansas’ “brick and mortar” stores who have to collect Arkansas’ sales tax. His idea of “fairness” is to increase your tax burden.
“Fairness” has nothing to do with attempts to tax you more. It is just an excuse to get more money to grow state government.
Do you really purchase from out-of-state stores to avoid tax? We doubt it. Tax has little to nothing to do with online purchases, especially in those instances where you must pay even more money because of shipping.
Here is what is fair. Because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, your out-of-state purchases are already treated just like the out-of-state purchases of consumers in every other state. If the store doesn’t have a facility in your state, the store can’t be required to collect the state sales tax.
Governor Hutchinson would change the balance set up by the U.S. Supreme Court. He wants out-of-state stores to collect Arkansas SalesTax from you. But did you know customers living in other states making an internet purchase from an Arkansas store (that doesn’t have a facility in their state) still will not have to pay their state’s tax. Why is it fairness for Arkansans to have to pay sales tax on out of state purchases when residents in other states do not have to do so?
There has already been a “fairness” plan put forward at the federal level (by Arkansas’ U.S. Congressman Steve Womack) to collect a sales tax on all interstate purchases and give most of the money back to the states. Congress and the people of these United States have NOT been interested in such a plan.
Speaking of FAIRNESS, did you know Arkansas has the third highest combined state and local sales tax rate in the nation? Excluding local sales taxes, Arkansas’s state sales tax rate of 6.5% is the ninth highest in the nation. Five states have NO state sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon.[i]
Why the push for an internet sales tax? Amazon.com has already agree to start voluntarily collecting the Arkansas’s sales tax, and one study says Amazon accounts for 43% of all internet sales.[ii] Do you think Governor Hutchinson wants to give that Amazon tax money back to you? Wishful thinking. Arkansas government will keep growing and spending everything it has, and will always want more of your money.
Is it Arkansas’ mom and pop stores who are demanding an internet sales tax? No. It is Walmart. Nearly everyone in Arkansas goes to Walmart store instead of buying from them from the internet because they have to go there anyway since Walmart has driven so many Arkansas mom and pop stores out of business.
Don’t expect Walmart’s share to go up even if Governor Hutchinson whips your legislators into voting for an internet sales tax. Arkansans will still do their Walmart shopping in person when they have to go to Walmart to pick up milk, bread, and eggs.
Governor Hutchinson is still twisting arms to get the internet sales tax. “This will be resolved. It is just a matter of time,” he said. “I had a number of legislators that came up to me and said they want to continue to work on that, so we’ll see when that can be addressed in a future legislative session.”[iii]
Don’t reduce the buying power of Arkansans by having more tax money sucked into the black hole of Arkansas government. To keep things FAIR, say “NO” to Governor Hutchinson and his internet sales tax!
Here is a list of your state legislators who have already supported the internet tax when they voted for SB140 which did not pass.
- State Senators: Bond, Caldwell, E. Cheatham, L. Chesterfield, A. Clark, J. Cooper, J. Dismang, L. Eads, Elliott, J. English, Files, S. Flowers, J. Hendren, Hickey, J. Hutchinson, K. Ingram, U. Lindsey, Maloch, Rice, B. Sample, Teague, D. Wallace, E. Williams
- State Representatives: F. Allen, Beck, Blake, Boyd, Bragg, Branscum, Brown, Burch, Coleman, Collins, Cozart, Dalby, D. Douglas, Eubanks, Farrer, Fielding, C. Fite, L. Fite, V. Flowers, M.J. Gray, Hammer, Henderson, Hillman, M. Hodges, Jett, Johnson, Love, Magie, McElroy, G. McGill, Murdock, Nicks, Pitsch, Richey, Rushing, Sabin, Shepherd, Tucker, Walker, Warren, Watson, D. Whitaker, Wing
[i] https://taxfoundation.org/state-and-local-sales-tax-rates-in-2017/
[ii] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/video/amazon-reponsible-for-43percent-of-all-2016-online-sales/vi-AAmvHHe
[iii] http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/apr/04/online-sales-tax-quest-fails-again-2017/