The Cost of Complying with the Marketplace Fairness Act
By Kevin Hickey, OnlineStores.com
We have looked extensively in-depth at the consequences of the Marketplace Fairness Act. Online Stores Inc., has determined that the costs to comply with the proposed bill are going to be exorbitant for small businesses like ours. OLS has sat down and deciphered just how much it is going to cost in the first two years of implementation.
Several different costs will be associated with the passing of the new bill. Among these costs include management time to review the obligations, create an execution plan and determine how to monitor, the purchase of the software, set up and maintenance fees, and fees per transaction, just to name a few! All of these costs begin to accrue and after just one year, OLS has estimated its costs to be over $300,000! And we aren't even taking into account all of the audits from 46 states... each with their own rules and product exemptions. We have been audited before and it was a nightmare. We'll leave that story for another day.
Please see the attached spreadsheet outlining more specifically costs that OLS is expecting to endure with this passing bill: