David Campbell CEO of FedTax has a TruST Problem

In 2012, in a letter to the Governor of Maine, David Campbell, CEO of FedTax, tried to garner support for remote-seller use-tax collection legislation by claiming that any retailer that uses a shopping cart or order management system could integrate and use his third-party tax collection system in 20 minutes (or less).

“Any retailer that uses an online “shopping cart” or order management system can register with our service and be ready to collect sales tax in 20 minutes (or less), no matter how small they are." (emphasis added) -- David Campbell (CEO, FedTax)

Many members of eMainStreet have been offended by this claim, not only because it is patently false, but also because proponents of the MFA have been using Campbell's false claims, like this one, to mislead lawmakers.  Today, in response to a study about the true costs of sales tax software by TruST which blew up this falsehood, Campbell admitted that his software - TaxCloud - does not do what he previously claimed.

"We admit that not all order management systems have pre-integrated with TaxCloud..." -- David Campbell (CEO, FedTax)

The truth is that TaxCloud only works with a fraction of shopping carts, order-management softwares and accounting systems.  And there is no inexpensive or even relatively inexpensive solution for the thousands of stores that use custom shopping cart and order management technology. How is it that Campbell could claim that retailers would be up-and-running with his product in 20 minutes if his software isn't even compatible with most order management, accounting and shopping cart solutions?

It appears that Campbell may have purposely been misleading the Governor of Maine to elicit support for legislation that would enrich Mr. Campbell with taxpayer funds.

This seems to be a pattern. Campbell has repeatedly misled the public, media and elected officials about the capabilities of his sales tax software and about the burdens that the MFA would foist onto small businesses (here's another source for more information about FexTax/TaxCloud deceptions).  In our opinion, this ought to disqualify Campbell as a reliable source for Congress and members of the media as relates to remote use tax collection legislation.