It is do or die Monday in the Arkansas House of Representatives for a bill aimed at persuading out-of-state companies without a physical presence in Arkansas to collect taxes on their sales to Arkansans and pay the money to the state.
Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, who is handling Senate Bill 140 on the House floor, said that running the bill on what is scheduled to be the last day of the session means there isn't time to amend the bill.
"It's going to run just the way it is or die just the way it is," he said Friday.
His comments came after it was apparent Friday that some House members were talking about potential amendments.
"There's probably no less than 20 or 30 amendments," Douglas said. "There's an amendment where we want to spend it on highways, there's an amendment where we want to spend it on tax cuts, there's an amendment where we want to spend it on this and that and everything else.
"There is no time for additional amendments."
SB140 cleared the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Thursday, the fourth time the committee had considered the measure.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, has estimated SB140 could increase state tax revenue by up to $100 million annually. State officials, though, say they don't know how much the bill would raise.
The bill has the backing of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Arkansas Homefurnishings Association and the Arkansas Municipal League. Two conservative groups, Americans for Prosperity and Conduit For Action, which see the bill as a new tax, lead the opposition.
SB140 was amended in committee Thursday, slowing its advancement. The bill was on the House calendar Friday for a member's amendment. Under House rules, bills on that calendar cannot be considered by the full House on the same day unless the rules are suspended.
That wasn't a smart option, Douglas said.
"You could" suspend the rules, he said. "But up until this point in the House, we have not suspended the rules on things like that."
Assuming it passes in the House on Monday, it would be easier to ask the Senate to suspend the rules to concur in the House amendment, Douglas said.
"They suspend the rules all the time down there," he said, adding optimistically, "When it passes on the House floor on Monday -- hopefully, we'll have it early on the calendar -- and we can transmit it down the Senate and they can concur."
Files said that with Amazon having agreed to collect sales taxes in each state that has a sales tax, questions about the constitutionality of his bill "probably" have been addressed.
On Feb. 10, four days after the Senate approved SB140, Amazon announced that it would begin collecting taxes in the state on March 1.
SB140 would require an out-of-state company not physically here to collect taxes based on its sales to Arkansans if the seller's gross revenue from those sales exceeds $100,000 or it had at least 200 transactions for delivery into Arkansas in the previous or current calendar year.
If companies don't collect and remit these taxes, SB140 would require them to report each year to the Department of Finance and Administration the name and address of each Arkansas purchaser and the total amount paid, and provide notice to each Arkansas purchaser that the information has been provided to the state.
The bill also would require the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force to review the amount of money that would be raised by the measure and recommend to lawmakers how to use the funds, including further income tax cuts or funding programs.
Files has said SB140 mirrors a South Dakota law now before that state's Supreme Court.
SB140 states that the U.S. Supreme Court "should reconsider its doctrine that prevents states from requiring remote sellers to collect [a] use tax."
A Section on 04/01/2017