Colorado Businesses Could Catch Break On Credit Card Swipe Fees

By Rae Solomon | The Colorado Sun

A proposal to reduce credit card swipe fees has whipped up a frothy, multi-million-dollar lobbying fight at the State Capitol this year, pitting the banking industry against retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. It passed the legislature Wednesday and now heads to the governor’s desk.

Senate Bill 134 concerns the interchange fees, or swipe fees, that merchants pay to the banks every time a customer pays with a credit card. Currently, those fees are calculated as a percentage of the total charge, sales tax and all. The proposal, which passed the House on a 44-20 vote, would remove sales taxes from the equation, basing swipe fees only on the underlying purchase.

“When a merchant takes a credit card from a consumer and processes that card, they should not have to pay fees on the local or state taxes that they are collecting from that customer,” said Democratic House Speaker Julie McCluskie of Dillon, a main sponsor of the bill.

“They will continue to pay a swipe fee on the bulk of the purchase, whether it was a meal, a new coat, a pair of shoes, but they will not have to pay an interchange fee any longer on the taxes they collect,” McCluskie said, adding that the measure will help struggling local businesses, saving them thousands of dollars each year on credit card fees.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE COLORADO SUN