FIRST IN PI — AIRBNB, BLOCK, PAYPAL JOIN PUSH TO ROLL BACK NEW TAX RULES FOR ONLINE SELLERS: The coalition of online marketplaces urging lawmakers to scale back a new threshold triggering tax reporting requirements for sellers on their platforms has added several big names to its ranks. — Airbnb , collectibles marketplace Goldin and payment platforms Block and PayPal are joining the Coalition for 1099-K Fairness to press for changes to the requirements, which were slipped into President Joe Biden 's Covid relief legislation last year to help offset its cost. The provision, which lowered the reporting threshold from $20,000 in sales through at least 200 transactions to $600 with no minimum number of transactions, is projected to generate $8.4 billion over the next decade. — But online marketplaces and other players in the gig economy have warned the new threshold could saddle casual sellers with burdensome tax paperwork or spook sellers from their platforms by asking for their Social Security number in order for companies to produce the 1099-K forms. — The coalition is getting lobbying help from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, including a former aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who is spearheading the effort to include changes to the threshold in any year-end tax deal or spending package. The coalition hasn't coalesced around any one new threshold proposal, but has pointed to several bills that either increase it or revert it back to its original level. — Airbnb, Block and PayPal are the first members of the coalition who don't operate marketplaces facilitating the sale of goods, though the two payment platforms facilitate transactions and Airbnb runs a marketplace of short-term rentals. The group's founding members are eBay, Etsy, OfferUp, Poshmark, Mercari, Reverb and Tradesy. FCC PREPS BAN ON CHINESE TELECOM EQUIPMENT: "The Federal Communications Commission plans to ban all sales of new Huawei and ZTE telecommunications devices in the U.S. — as well as some sales of video surveillance equipment from three other Chinese firms — out of national security concerns," Axios' Margaret Harding McGill, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Jonathan Swan report. — "The move, which marks the first time the FCC has banned electronics equipment on national security grounds, closes a vise on the two Chinese companies that began tightening during the Trump administration." — The commission is also expected to "determine the scope of a ban on sales of video surveillance equipment used for public safety. This would affect the Chinese companies Hytera Communications Corporation, Hikvision and Dahua Technology Company, the sources told Axios." The ban would not be retroactive, however. — Still, it's an escalation of a crackdown the Chinese firms have spent heavily in recent years to head off. Huawei's annual lobbying expenditures soared from $165,000 in 2018 to nearly $3 million the next year. After plummeting in 2020, Huawei dropped a new record of $3.6 million last year, including $1 million over two quarters to Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta. Through the end of September, Huawei has spent $2.4 million on lobbying, disclosures show. The company also paid the PR firm Ruder Finn $240,000 through the first six months of this year, according to FARA filings. — ZTE's spending has drooped in recent years after approaching $4 million in both 2018 and 2019, as the company wormed its way out of a ban on doing business with American companies. The company has spent only $660,000 on lobbying through the first half of this year. Hikvision, whose team of lobbyists and PR professionals are registered through both the LDA and FARA and includes former Sen. David Vitter, has so far spent more than $3.7 million on influence efforts through the first half of this year, according to DOJ filings and lobbying disclosures. RETAILERS GET MIXED RESULTS IN SENATE DEFENSE BILL: The Senate's version of annual defense policy legislation unveiled this week does not include an amendment targeting the interchange fees charged to merchants to run credit card transactions, but the measure does incorporate anti-counterfeits legislation backed by a slew of competing interest groups. — Banking and credit union groups cheered the exclusion of the bill from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) along with a companion amendment that would require a report on surcharge fees for using credit or debit cards at military commissaries to cover the cost of so-called swipe fees. But Durbin's office has pledged to continue pushing for a vote, and financial trades are not taking their foot off the gas. — The Consumer Bankers Association , which represents retail banks, has been meeting with senators to oppose the card routing bill, it said in a release Wednesday. The trade group said it will continue to press its case to make sure the provision isn't slipped into lawmakers' lame duck spending package. — "Because of the tireless efforts of NAFCU, our member credit unions and our trade association coalition partners, we were able to keep the harmful Credit Card Competition Act and the interchange issue out of" the NDAA, Dan Berger, the president and CEO of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions said in a statement earlier this week. — "This is a big win for credit unions, but we need to continue the fight to make sure lawmakers fully comprehend the damage this bill would have on the financial services industry and American consumers," he added, vowing "to keep fighting this issue on behalf of credit unions and consumers." SPOTTED at a fundraiser on Wednesday for Missouri congressional candidate Mark Alford, who is running to succeed Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), hosted by St. Louis area-based government affairs shop Strategic Capitol Consulting, per a tipster: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Ann Wagner and Ray Wagner, Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) and Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Kit Bond and Kenny Hulshof of KBS Group, Linda Bond, Missouri House Speaker-Designee Dean Plocher, and more than two dozen clients of the firm.
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