网店征税大论战

    电子商务自诞生以来，就一直有人提议要对网上交易征税。在网络发展初期，主要障碍在于这种税几乎无法征收，因为各地和各州的销售税税制差异很大。要让商户遵守数以千计的法律——仅仅考虑州销售税也有几十条之多——会让哪怕是最大的电商也没法做生意。

    其实软件和各类服务的发展早就能解决这个问题了，但是从eBay首席执行官约翰•多纳霍的抗议中却看不到这一点。他宣称，《市场公平法案》——本周一已由参议院通过，正有待总统批准——不公平，因为它会给小企业增加额外负担。他所谓的小企业是指那些营收不足1,000万美元或员工不足50人的企业。而如果各州向大于这个规模的企业征税，他没有意见。

    这项法案将对年营收不足100万美元的零售商实行免税，这类企业涵盖了eBay的多数商户。这个法案同时还为卖家提供了收税和缴税的框架。尽管多数法律之前已经要求消费者网购时要缴税，但这些要求通常都没人理会。

    eBay在反对收税的大公司阵营中显得有些势单力薄，因为亚马逊公司（Amazon）最近已经签字同意了这项法案。而在此之前，反对对网上交易征税常常被称为“亚马逊漏洞”，亚马逊一直竭力反对这类税负。而沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）和塔吉特百货（Target）这样的零售商当然对这种法案是双手赞成的，因为这让它们能和电商处于更公平的竞争地位。

    本周一，多纳霍向全国公共广播电台（NPR）表示，向各类行政机关代缴税费会给“小型”企业增加负担。他说：“如果这项法案执行，eBay市场上的东西仍能卖得动，但将会出现大型卖家独霸市场的局面，而小商户将会慢慢地、逐渐被挤出市场。”

    Taxes on Internet sales have been talked about since the birth of e-commerce. In those early web days, one major objection was that taxes would be impossible to collect, given all the various local and state sales-tax regimes. Forcing merchants to adhere to the laws of thousands -- or dozens if only state sales taxes are considered -- of jurisdictions would have made it impossible for even the largest online store to do business.

    Developments in software and services have long since solved that problem, but you wouldn't know it from the protestations of eBay (EBAY) CEO John Donahoe. He claims that the Marketplace Fairness Act -- passed by the Senate on Monday and now on its way to the House -- is unfair because of the burden it would put on small businesses. By that he means businesses with less than $10 million in revenue or fewer than 50 employees. He's OK with enabling states to collect taxes from companies larger than that.

    The bill would exempt retailers with less than $1 million in annual revenue, which would include most eBay merchants. The bill provides a framework for sellers to collect and pay the taxes. While many jurisdictions already require that consumers pay taxes on Internet purchases, those requirements are usually ignored.

    Ebay is pretty much alone among big companies in opposing the tax, ever since Amazon (AMZN) recently signed on. Before that, the non-taxation of Internet sales was often referred to as "the Amazon loophole," so strongly did the company oppose such taxes. Big retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) of course support the legislation, as it would put them on a more equal footing with online merchants.

    Donahoe told NPR on Monday that remitting taxes to all those different jurisdictions would be too burdensome for those "small" companies. "If it's allowed to play out, things will still sell in eBay marketplace," he said, "but it will be larger and larger sellers that are doing the selling, and the small guy will, over time, slowly be squeezed out."