INDIANAPOLIS – Merchants from around the state unveiled a poll Tuesday showing most Hoosiers support requiring online retailers like Amazon to collect state sales tax.
The Indiana Merchants for Tax Fairness is a coalition of Indiana businesses that believe Amazon and other Internet vendors have a competitive advantage because of the sales tax issue.
Amazon isn’t the only retailer in question, but it has taken a lot of heat because Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration several years ago agreed not to seek the sales taxes in exchange for Amazon locating several warehouses in the state.
Legislators began considering going after Amazon when the company agreed to start paying the tax in other states, but not here.
Then in January, the governor announced a new deal with Amazon to start collecting the sales tax on purchases starting in 2014 even though the company is starting to pay in other states this year.
Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council and spokesman for the coalition, said a statewide poll of 600 Indiana registered voters found 69 percent of Hoosiers feel it is unfair to local retailers that no sales tax is collected by online-only retailers.
Retailers without a physical presence in a state are not required to collect.
But Amazon has several warehouses and centers in Indiana.
Only about a third of Hoosiers polled correctly knew they were required to self-report and pay the sales tax on all online purchases via their individual income tax returns.
When told of the deal between the state and Amazon, 60 percent disapproved.
And 59 percent of those polled said they support requiring Amazon to collect Indiana sales tax immediately.
Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, introduced a bill to address the issue, but Monahan said it also had a two-year waiting period – too long for brick-and-mortar stores in the state to keep losing business.
The legislation never got a vote in Espich’s committee in part because Espich opposed moving up the effective date while other legislators supported it.
Jeff Kinney, owner of Kinney Dancewear in Indianapolis, said he is tired of Espich and other legislators waiting for a federal solution to the problem.
“These people live in Indiana and it’s time for them to stand up for the people,” including small businesses that pay taxes in Indiana. “Someone needs to call these people out.”
