Share Don’t mess with Texas…or do? As is well known by now, the $269 million dollar bill sent by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs to Amazon for failure to collect and remit sales tax from 2005-2009 triggered state efforts on a national scale to hold the online retailer accountable for lost revenue. The debate has mostly focused on whether or not affiliates should be considered “physically present,” as exemplified by recent showdowns in North Carolina, California, New York, and Rhode Island. This focus stems from the 1992 Supreme Court Case Quill Corp. vs. North Dakota ruling which legally requires retailers that have a physical presence (nexus) in a state – i.e. distribution centers, plants, warehouses, storefronts, etc. – to collect and remit sales tax. Many states have adopted legislation defining nexus at the state level. In the case of Texas, there was a fully operational Amazon distribution center in Irving during the period for which the giant retailer was billed, in addition to thousands of local affiliates. Full Article…

Although opponents won a victory in the battle, the war is far from over. In fact, the most controversial aspect of the original rule including IRAs will return when the agency issues a revised regulation early next year.

IRAs will continue to be part of the re-proposed rule, Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi wrote in an e-mail. The rule is designed to provide the strongest possible protections to business owners and retirement savers in plans and IRAs.

The department argues that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known as ERISA, must be updated to ensure that advisers act in the best interests of workers and retirees as they build their retirement nest eggs often working on their own through 401(k)s and IRAs.

Critics said that the proposed rule was too expansive and would subject broker-dealer IRA advisers to fiduciary duty for the first time. They said it would curtail commissions, raise compliance and liability costs and drive broker-dealers out of the IRA market, thus limiting small investors’ access to IRA advice.

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The American Bankers Association said the higher fees are the result of government market intervention that led to lost income for banks, which make up for it in other ways.

A study released by Bankrate.com on Monday showed that non-interest checking accounts in the U.S. are on a decline. Among all types of checking accounts, only 45 percent of such types exist, down from 65 percent in 2010 and 76 percent in 2009.

Along with the decline in non-interest checking accounts is the rise in monthly fees to an average of $4.37 for a non-interest account, up 75 percent from 12 months ago.

Bankrate senior financial analyst Greg McBride said the rising monthly fee are banks’ way of recovering lost revenue from new regulations that take effect on Oct. 1 that cap the maximum fees that banks could charge retailers when customers pay using a debit card.

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The FSU is aware that members have been waiting for their pay increases which were due on 1 July 2011. Unfortunately we were unable to proceed with finalising the Agreement for almost 2 months whilst we waited for CBA to put forward their final positions on some key issues. These outstanding issues were
finalised late last week and on Friday your representatives on the National Enterprise Council voted to endorse the Agreement.

The proposed new agreement contains the following:

Details of the timing of the ballot and the process will be announced shortly. If the agreement is approved all salary increases will be made as soon as possible following that and backdated to 1 July 2011.