1,000 Retailers Affected? Try 3.5 Million.

Proponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act have made the preposterous claim that this bill would only affect 1,000 retailers. This talking point has been repeated on the Hill many times. Here is a clip of Dick Durbin making the preposterous claim during a Congressional hearing:

First, we must point out the obvious. There are tens of thousands of small business who have joined coalitions like ours, including the We R Here Coalition and eBay Main Street to fight back against MFA. If only 1,000 retailers will be affected why are there tens of thousands who have joined our groups and are actively fighting to defeat the bill?

Second, in the clip above, Senator Durbin claims that there are only 11 retailers who will be affected by the Marketplace Fairness Act in the entire state of Oregon. Let the record state that we have more than 11 Oregon business owners in the eMainStreet Alliance and none of our Oregon members were named by the Senator. We have provided names and included signatures of Oregon businesses in our letter to Congress.

Third, the actual number of small businesses that will be adversely affected by this bill could be in the millions! But, don't take our word for it; Rick Smith of MarketplaceFairnessCoalition.org recently discovered a hidden video by FedTax/Tax Cloud--a Certified Software Provider (CSP) that has openly lobbied for the passage of MFA-- wherein they assert that the MFA will affect up to 3.5 MILLION retailers!

“Between 350,000 and 3.5 million retailers will be impacted by the new law ….” -- Tax Cloud Video

We believe that if there is a small seller exemption in the bill, the number of affected small businesses would be close to the number Tax Cloud (Fed Tax) reported: 350,000.  Furthermore, proponents plan on getting rid of the exemption over time so that every remote seller in American will be entangled by this bill. So, even if 'only' 350,000 are affected at passage (with a small seller exemption in place), 3.5 million retailers will ultimately be impacted by compliance burdens and unfair regulations.

Once their video's existence was discovered, Tax Cloud pulled it from the web and filed DMCA takedown notices against parties that repost it. But that won't work. The cat is out of the bag and the veil has slipped. You can read the full transcript of the video and watch the clip in question here. The link also provides more details about Tax Cloud efforts to hide their revealing (and pernicious) video secret.