[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Across America, families use credit cards to put food on the table, fill their gas tanks, and access the credit needed to make life work. Only 10% of consumers don’t have a credit card. At a time when inflation is hitting all of us, merchants want to squeeze consumers even further.

Removing sales tax from interchange calculations would disrupt credit card payment systems that work for families across Illinois. Consumers use cards as a safe and convenient payment method, and this would drastically change the way business is transacted by requiring separate calculations of the interchange fee based upon the purchase price of goods and the amount of state and local taxes.

This proposal will exponentially increase the cost of the electronic payments system. Retailers will continue to shift this cost of doing business to Illinois consumers at a time when they can least afford it.

Why put Illinois consumers at risk? There is NO benefit to the state in removing sales tax from the interchange fee calculation. For decades, special interest groups advocating for increased profits to big box retailers have argued for this change that governments across the United States have denied.

Illinois legislators should not support a retailer bailout that would set Illinois apart from every other state in the nation. Keep card transactions safe and convenient by supporting the current interchange system!