Act Now to Protect Your Interests Against State Revenue Agents
Dear Industry Member:
As ACMA tax attorney George Isaacson and I pointed out during the Fall 2018 NEMOA event, constituents must put immediate pressure on Congress for it to act. Don’t kid yourself otherwise. Remote sellers must make noise right now if there is to be any hope of moving critical legislation to set some basic guidelines as to what the rules going forward will be for remote sellers operating nationwide.
States are issuing new regulations weekly, some of which contain unreasonable demands such as your retroactive liability for uncollected back taxes. This is the time for all of us to rise up and say enough! Regardless of your political affiliation or how you feel about your particular elected officials, we implore you to let your congressman know you support HR 6824 and urge him/her to cosponsor it.
Case In Point
ACMA member Rich Fairbanks, President & CEO of the Fitness Finders catalog, told me just this morning that following our NEMOA discussion…
I called my congressman’s office and left a message asking him to support HR 6824. I then called the DC office of [the bill’s lead sponsor] Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and they were very interested in my support, took my contact info, and said they might get back in touch. Seems like the more people who can do that the better, so I wanted to share my results.
It took me all of 10 minutes to call both offices. For my local rep, I just had to give them the name of the bill, sponsors, and told them I wanted them to support it. When I called Sensenbrenner’s office, I could tell he was immediately interested, even when his aides found out I’m not in his district. So it clearly benefits this bill to him ‘hey, I support your bill even though I’m not in your district. In fact, Sensenbrenner’s office was very pleased to hear that I asked my own congressman to support H.R. 6824. Having a specific bill to support makes this very easy.
Now It’s Your Turn
If you have employees who can vote for representatives sitting on the House Judiciary Committee (click here for full roster), their action is vital right now too. The Judiciary Committee must successfully vote out legislation from committee before it can be scheduled a full vote on the floor. We previously supplied this resource (including letter templates) where you can customize with your company’s particular facts, but you must take the next step and communicate with supreme urgency the need for legislative action. For all your communications with Congress, please copy action@catalogmailers.org so we can follow up with each office and track responses.
Businesses need personal relationships with their members of Congress because they’re the ones who get listened to. Members of Congress will do anything to avoid disappointing constituents they are close to. ACMA offers a Grassroots Guide to developing a relationship with Congress that you can use as a guide.
With election season upon us, now is an ideal time to host politicians at your facilities. Don’t overlook adjacent districts where your employees may actually live. ACMA also has a checklist for setting up such events.
There are only a few legislative days remaining before the 115th Congress ends and time is spent campaigning for the general election in November. Following that, we expect Congressional members to return to D.C. for a lame duck session where our bills have a reasonable chance of being heard if we make adequate noise with Congress now.
Help us help you. Take action today! Thank you.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Davison
President & Executive Director
American Catalog Mailers Association
hdavison@catalogmailers.org
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