TTeam Retail advocacy lowers your cost of doing business by letting lawmakers and regulators know the impact of their policies on the business environment.

The mission of FRF's Advocacy, Intervention and Political Team (AIP) is to maintain a favorable economic climate for retailers and their suppliers to grow and prosper. FRF’s AIP staff advocates and intervenes on behalf of the retail industry before the state's legislative, regulatory and judicial bodies, and engages in political activity to promote the free market and the interests of businesses large and small.

Florida retailers are responsible for collecting and remitting one of the state’s most important revenue sources – the sales tax. In the year 2012, Florida retailers collected and remitted nearly $20 billion in sales taxes for the state government alone. Retailers directly employ more than 1.7 million Floridians, making the industry an important engine for job growth. A healthy retail marketplace creates jobs and drives the growth of many other industries, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation, shipping, real estate and construction.

One of the highest priorities of the Florida Retail Federation this year is e-fairness legislation that would close the loophole that allows remote sellers to avoid collecting the sales tax on Internet sales. Florida retailers have been collecting sales taxes on their e-commerce all along, but several large out-of-state sellers have so far refused to collect and remit sales taxes. It’s time for this government-created competitive disadvantage to end, and we are advocating for legislation that would put state retailers on a level playing field with remote sellers.