[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5252 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5252

To ensure that methods of collecting taxes and fees by private citizens 
  on behalf of States are fair and effective and do not discriminate 
                      against interstate commerce.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 29, 2014

 Mr. Sensenbrenner (for himself, Mr. Bachus, Mr. Terry, Mr. Cohen, and 
   Mr. Johnson of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that methods of collecting taxes and fees by private citizens 
  on behalf of States are fair and effective and do not discriminate 
                      against interstate commerce.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act 
of 2014''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) States may designate in-State or out-of-State persons 
        or other entities as collection agents for the State with a 
        duty to collect certain taxes and fees from residents of the 
        State.
            (2) States have the sovereign right to tax their citizens, 
        subject to the Constitution and the law. States do not have the 
        right to tax interstate commerce or to impose taxes or other 
        duties on citizens of other States without limitation.
            (3) Collection agents for a State may feasibly collect fees 
        and taxes from customers in connection with financial 
        transactions to which the agent and customer are parties. In 
        such cases, the agent has transactional nexus with the 
        customer.
            (4) Congress can help ensure against unreasonable burdens 
        on interstate commerce by making transactional nexus a 
        condition of imposing a duty on a person to serve as a 
        collection agent for the State and making such person strictly 
        liable for any failure to collect.

SEC. 3. TRANSACTIONAL NEXUS REQUIREMENT.

    No State may require any person to collect from, or remit on behalf 
of, any other person any State or local fee, tax, or surcharge imposed 
on a purchaser or user with respect to the purchase or use of any 
product or service within a State, unless there is transactional nexus 
between the person from whom the State seeks to require such collection 
or remittance and the purchaser or user of such product or service. 
``Transactional nexus'' means that there is a direct monetary 
transaction between the person required to collect or remit the fee, 
tax, or surcharge and the purchaser or user upon whom the fee, tax, or 
surcharge is imposed. The term ``State'' means each of the several 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 
Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory 
or possession of the United States.

SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT.

    Notwithstanding any provision of section 1341 of title 28, United 
States Code, or the constitution or laws of any State, the district 
courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction, without regard to 
amount in controversy or citizenship of the parties, to grant such 
mandatory or prohibitive injunctive relief, interim equitable relief, 
and declaratory judgments as may be necessary to prevent, restrain, or 
terminate any acts in violation of this Act.
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