Protect ‘Mom and Pop’

I read with some amusement the May 25 letter from Daryl Rheingans and John Shasky in support of the Marketplace Fairness Act. They fail to note that if this misguided bill were to become law, the consequences for small online retailers would be catastrophic.

Many of these retailers are small “Mom and Pop” operations, based in basements or garages in Washington and across the country. These businesses would now be required to comply with the laws of almost 10,000 taxing jurisdictions across the country and could be threatened with audits from them as well.

For the general managers of two local malls to make this argument is especially disingenuous. What would they say if the clerks in every one of their malls’ stores were required to ask customers where they lived, and collect and remit the appropriate sales taxes for that jurisdiction? No doubt it’d be a logistical nightmare.

Rheingans and Shasky are right that Congress should act to ensure a level playing field for 21st century commerce, one which would ensure that small, nimble online retailers, the embodiment of the 21st century economy, are on an equal footing with such 20th century throwbacks as shopping malls.

Phil Bond

Alexandria, Va.