Retail exec talks online sales tax at chamber breakfast

The Maricopa Chamber of Commerce held its monthly breakfast in the ballroom at Harrah’s Ak-Chin today. This featured speaker was the executive director of the Arizona Retailers Association, Michelle Ahlmer.

Ahlmer gave a legislative update on the current state of affairs for the retail industry in the local and state economy and discussed what the ARA is trying to get passed in Congress, including the Market Fairness Act, also known as the E-Fairness bill.

“This bill, which has already been passed by the Senate and is sitting in the House, would allow states’ the ability to apply sales tax to all online purchases,” Ahlmer said.

This E-Fairness bill would require large online-only retailers to include a sales tax on all online purchases regardless of whether the retailer has a physical presence in the state where a consumer makes a purchase.

Ahlmer said it has been determined to be a judiciary issue, not a tax issue, since a sales tax already exists in the state, and it is just an issue of how that tax is collected.

Because of a lack of sales tax on online purchase, many consumers come into stores to research a product and then buy it online. This isn’t good for the economy, Ahlmer said.

“If our sales tax collections continue to fall short of expectations, not just on a statewide basis but from each company, and each retailer sees their brick-and-mortar sales not grow at the rate of their online sales, they’re going to make the decision on whether they keep that store open,” Ahlmer said. “This means job losses in your community, property tax losses if those doors close and income tax losses if there isn’t more revenue generated in Arizona than what comes into Arizona.”

Ahlmer said this could lead to a lot of empty buildings and more crime.

Another recent issue for the Arizona Retailers Association was the fallout from the controversial SB 1062 bill which made national news when it was passed by the Legislature and subsequently vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer in February.

The bill would have allowed businesses to assert their religious beliefs to legally justify denying service to gay and lesbian customers.

Ahlmer said SB 1062 was a perfect example where coalition building didn’t exist, as her association along with other businesses groups had no involvement in the process of the bill and were blindsided when it passed.