Sustains Our Communities

• Funds generated from state sales and use tax revenues contribute to valuable, tangible community services such as education for our children, law enforcement to protect our neighborhoods and transportation services to maintain and repair our roads.
• If the tax loophole that allows online retailers to avoid collecting a state's sales tax is not eliminated, state and local governments may have to raise income or property taxes to offset this lost revenue.
• Sales and use taxes are consumption taxes imposed on the consumer, not retailers. However, due to the complexity of the various sales and use taxes, the states require retailers to collect them at the point of sale.
• Main Street retailers are the ones who sponsor the Little League teams, buy tables at charity events, and participate directly in the communities in which they live.

• According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 48% of states' revenues come from the collection of sales and use taxes.
• A University of Tennessee study released in February 2000 showed that continuing to exempt e-commerce sales from sales tax collection would result in the loss of more than $20 billion in states' sales tax revenue by 2003.
• States' Dependence on Sales Taxes: Many states rely heavily on funds generated from sales taxes for their overall state income.
  • Nine states depend on sales and use tax revenue for 40% or more of their overall revenue
  • 18 states rely on sales and use tax revenue for 30% or more of their overall revenue
    *U.S. Census Bureau, Federation of Tax Administrators
• State and local governments report more than $3.3 billion in tax revenue is lost annually from mail order sales and the amount lost from online sales may be much greater.