Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Rescuing online tax revenue

  Alabama’s senior and premier political reporter, Phil Rawls, has retired. Phil spent 35 years reporting on Alabama politics for the Associated Press. He was simply the best. He was fair and accurate. His 40 years of covering the state capitol made him easily the longest serving member of Alabama’s capitol press corps.

Cameron Smith: Marketplace Fairness Act might hurt Alabama’s web-based businesses

  As our state government continues to face fiscal challenges, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and a number of other lawmakers are pushing the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) as an integral part of the revenue solution.

  In 1939, Alabama enacted a use tax to prevent businesses outside of the state from enjoying a competitive advantage over in-state businesses required to charge, collect and pay sales tax. Almost 75 years later, interstate commerce has changed radically. Lawmakers imposing the 1939 tax could never have anticipated the relatively recent explosive growth in e-commerce.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Closing the online sales tax loophole

  Alabama’s beleaguered budgets could receive some relief if congress passes legislation to allow states to collect the online sales taxes due them.

  These are not new taxes. They are taxes being avoided and are already owed. It is simply a basic fairness issue. It is not fair that retail stores, who build buildings and hire employees, are made to collect sales taxes while hotline online companies are not required to collect these taxes owed to Alabama.