Amazon.com is collecting signatures for a referendum against the “Amazon tax” Gov. Jerry Brown signed last month, but it is supporting similar legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House and Senate.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced the Main Street Fairness Act in the Senate last week, and U.S. Representatives John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced it in the House.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1992 Quill decision, retailers only have to collect sales tax in states where they also have physical stores, but consumers are still supposed to report to state taxing authorities the “use taxes” they owe for online purchases free from sales taxes.

A statement from the lawmakers said the bill would take this burden of reporting taxes away from consumers, and, since use taxes are rarely reported, requiring retailers to collect sales tax would reduce the need for governments to raise new taxes or make devastating cuts and layoffs to fill budget holes.

Conyers said the bill will level the playing field for local businesses by ensuring that online retailers collect sales tax, too.

Physical businesses like bookstores complain that it is difficult to compete with online companies that do not have to increase their prices to include sales tax.

“When a consumer can walk into a store, try out a product and then go home and buy it online without paying sales tax, Main Street businesses and downtowns lose,” said Welch. “Our bill will level the playing field and bring much-needed fairness, strengthen our Main Street businesses, create jobs and revitalize our downtowns.”

Despite the referendum Amazon is seeking against the California law, Paul Misener, the company’s vice president for global public policy, said in a letter to the lawmakers that “Amazon.com has long supported a simple, nationwide system of state and local sales tax collection, evenhandedly applied to all sellers, no matter their business model, location, or level of remote sales.“

EBay, the operator of the world’s largest e-marketplace, opposes the bill because it says the legislation would hurt small online retailers that sell products on its website.

“The giant retailers jockeying for new Internet sales taxes have national store networks that they combine with their major online sales platforms, a business model they know brings some tax collection duties,” Brian Bieron, the company’s senior director of federal government relations and global public policy, told Internet Retailer. “Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business retailers on the Internet.”

According to the LA Times, unless Congress takes action soon, the bill is unlikely to head off Amazon’s referendum attempt in California.

The California law is expected to bring the state $317 million a year.

The referendum Amazon is seeking in the state would likely be on the June 2012 ballot. A USC Dornsife/LATimes poll conducted July 6 through 17 shows that California voters are split on the issue, with 46 percent of voters favoring the online sales tax and 49 percent opposing it.

              

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