Contact:
Krysta West
Communications Director
Senate Republican Office
(207) 287-1505
krysta.west@legislature.maine.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Who: Taxation Committee Committee
What: Public hearing on LD 1405, “An Act To Require Remote Sellers To Collect and Remit Sales and Use Tax on Sales into Maine and To Provide Retailers a Collection Allowance”
Where: State House, Room 127
When: Wednesday, May 3 at 1:00 PM

Tomorrow, May 2, the Taxation Committee will hold a public hearing on Senator Ron Collins’ (R-York) E-Fairness bill, LD 1405 at 1:00 PM in Room 127 of the State House.

The bill, “An Act To Require Remote Sellers To Collect and Remit Sales and Use Tax on Sales into Maine and To Provide Retailers a Collection Allowance,” would require online companies with significant sales within the state of Maine, at least $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions annually, to comply with Maine law by collecting and remitting Maine income tax on all purchases.

To encourage businesses to comply, the bill would return 2% of the 5.5% sales tax to the retailer to cover the cost of properly collecting and remitting sales taxes to the State. This would mean that on a $200 purchase, the total sales tax would be $11. Of that, the state would receive $10.78 and the retailer would keep $0.22.

“I have sponsored this legislation because I think It’s important that we require all retailers selling goods in Maine to play by the same rules,” said Sen. Collins. “Customers have the ability in this day and age to easily shop around for the best price. Requiring local retailers to collect a 5.5% tax while not requiring online retailers to do the same puts our Maine-based businesses at a government-sponsored disadvantage. This is the exact wrong signal to send to job creators here in Maine, which is why we need to do everything we can to level the playing field by collecting our sales tax in a fair manner.”

###