The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is once again calling on its members to contact their governors to support a sales tax on online sales.
In the template letter they provide their booksellers to send to their governor they say the “sales tax shortfall will grow worse each year as online shopping grows. The Wall Street Journal reported that online sales this holiday season grew by a remarkable 19 percent. In contrast, retails sales this holiday season only rose 3.6 percent.”
Wouldn’t you rather get in on the “remarkable” growth of online shopping than to try and deter it?
I understand that having to pay sales tax when buying from your local independent business is a possible deterrent when the same product can be obtained elsewhere tax free but supporting an Internet sales tax is barking up the wrong tree. Even if one had to pay sales tax on their internet purchases it would have a negligible positive effect at best and in most cases, even with the added sales tax, the book would still be cheaper to buy online than at your local independent bookstore!
If the ABA wants to get political they should be fighting for the fixed pricing model that I believe is used in Germany. The retail price of the book is set by the publisher and that is the price that anyone can offer the book at; no deep discounting, no loss leaders. This would go a whole lot further in leveling the playing field than increasing the tax burden of the consumer.
If anything this campaign is an indicator of the failure of BookSense. BookSense was supposed to be the online alternative to the major e-tailers and chain stores for independent bookstores. It has been a huge disappointment to say the least. When NPR has reservations about offering Booksense as a book buying option on their website you know that something is seriously amiss.
One issue is that only 20% of ABA member bookstores participate in BookSense. I would say at most about that percentage have their own stand alone e-commerce platform. That would leave at least 50% of their members with no e-commerce capabilities. For this day and age that is a dreadful statistic. Granted the ABA is a volunteer organization and to get a consensus or full cooperation on any initiative is a major challenge but I do believe they can do better to make BookSense a more attractive destination regardless of how many members participate.
There is still time.
Previous Book Patrol post, New York Booksellers Ask Spitzer to Reconsider Online Sales Tax
Letter from ABA President to NPR