Sears Applauds Bill To Enforce Sales Taxes for Online Purchases Aug 8, 2011

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Sears Holdings (Hoffman Estates, IL, U.S.), one of the biggest appliance retailers in the United States, endorsed and applauded a proposed bill form Illinois Senator Richard Durbin intended to address online sales tax collection issues.

The Main Street Fairness Act is intended to give states the ability to collect taxes on in-state purchases from out-of-state online retailers. Because taxes are typically not collected on online purchases, Sears said, and states loose significant revenue, which continues to increase as online sales grow.

Amazon.com, the world's biggest online retailer, made an example of the State of Illinois earlier this year when it dropped its Illinois-based retail partners as a way of protesting Illinois sales taxes.

"The Durbin legislation will restore balance and fairness to the system by enabling states to enforce the collection of taxes that are already owed by every customer making a purchase, whether the purchase is online or in a retail store," said a statement from Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears, Roebuck and Co., Kmart, and Lands' End retail stores. "This is a critical step in addressing an issue that has resulted in over a decade of unfair competition between retailers who collect the sales tax and those who refuse to do so."

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