Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Big News! You Can Be an Origin-based State and Still Be in the SSTP

Sounds like the SSTP is in danger to me.
Is this the beginning of the end of the SSTP?
The Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) Governing Board has amended the SST Agreement to allow states to become full members even while continuing to source sales on an origin basis. As reported in CCH, the Board and its predecessor organizations rejected repeated attempts in the past to change the Agreement to allow origin sourcing, most recently at its meeting in Kansas City, Kansas. However, the Board relented when confronted with the impending loss of at least two associate member states, uncertain prospects for adding further states, pressure from local governments, and a divided business community.
The chief cornerstone of the SSTP, regardless of how it's spun now, was uniformity amongst the several states. O one of the main impediments to uniformity/simplicity was always the question of origin vs. destination sourcing. Some states do it one way, some another. "Why can't we all just pick one way?" was the theme early on. Well, now faced with losing these associate states and never being able to coax certain origin states to come over to the destination-based approach, the Board blinked.
So what else will they cave on to get more states to participate? You get the feeling that we're in the same boat we were always in just rowing in circles.

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