Consumer failure to pay online sales and use taxes as a result of federal inaction on this issue annually results in the loss of billions of dollars per year in taxes owed to state and local governments on remote sales. For example, according to the Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales in 2005 were $87 billion, and grew to $341.7 billion in 2015. Due to this exponential growth, it is estimated that state and local governments fail to collect more than $23 billion annually on remote transactions.
Passing MFA or RTPA would finally bring federal law into the digital age by enabling state and local governments to collect sales taxes on online purchases that are already owed to them but are not being paid. Further, modernizing tax law to reflect the impact of e-commerce sales will level the playing field for brick and mortar retailers who are currently at a five to ten percent competitive disadvantage to remote sellers.