Coalition looks to battle online sales tax

Several trade associations launched a new coalition to battle efforts to pass online sales tax legislation.

The True Simplification of Taxation (TruST) is made up of the Direct Marketing Association, the Electronic Retailing Association, NetChoice and the American Catalog Mailers Association. The group is a counterweight to the Alliance for Main Street Fairness Coalition, a coalition of traditional retailers urging Congress to empower states to tax online purchases. Jerry Cerasale, a vice president for the Direct Marketing Association, said an online tax would "throttle new businesses before they even get off the ground.”