The Alabama Department of Revenue has announced that the Alabama Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Commission will hold its organizational meeting on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. at the headquarters of the Alabama Department of Revenue in Montgomery.
Readers will recall that the commission was created by the Alabama Legislature as part of Act 2011-563. According to the Department, "The purpose of the Alabama Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Commission is to identify and develop the programs necessary to come into compliance with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, in the event that Alabama becomes a participating member of the Agreement. The Commission is required to research Alabama's existing tax laws to identify the changes that will be necessary in order to bring Alabama into compliance with the Agreement, in the event that federal legislation adopting the Agreement becomes law; and to report these findings to the Legislature by the third day of the next regular legislative session following the enactment of federal legislation implementing the Agreement."
It will certainly be intriguing to watch to see how the Commission proposes to address the politically sensitive issue of local taxing jurisdictions administering their own taxes, among other thorny issues. Alabama is one of only a handful of states that allows its local jurisdictions to administer their own taxes and is often cited by business groups as being exceptionally difficult to deal with for sales and use tax purposes. Local administration of taxes is a significant impediment to being able to particpate in the streamlined sales tax agreement. Not surprisingly, local taxing jurisidictions are loathe to give up the authority they have over collecting their own taxes.
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