Topeka ? A bill suspending the state’s new destination-based sales tax system until Congress allows taxation on Internet purchases has advanced to final action in the House.

Last year, the Legislature passed a measure that changed how merchants calculate and collect retail sales taxes. The new law requires vendors to collect all applicable taxes based on where their goods are delivered, meaning they must deal with hundreds of rates and track sales in more detail than ever before.

This year’s bill, given tentative approval on a voice vote Monday, returns Kansas to its previous sales tax policy until Congress passes a law allowing sales tax on Internet sales. Passage on final action, set for Tuesday, would send the bill to the Senate.

During a debate Monday, the House voted 120-1 to amend the bill to provide small businesses a one-time, $1,000 income tax credit to help offset the costs of complying with the new law. The credit was proposed by Rep. Nancy Kirk, D-Topeka.

Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe, said the tax credit was meaningless if the moratorium is in effect. But Kirk’s amendment will give House members some “wiggle room” in negotiations with the Senate over the final version of any tax legislation, he said.

Senators last month rejected proposals to repeal the 2003 law and exempt businesses with less than $200,000 in annual sales from its provisions. Siegfreid said he hoped the Senate’s tax committee will take testimony from businesses about the sales tax issue before voting on the House bill.

The House rejected a proposal by Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, to repeal the 2003 law altogether. Still, Schwab said advancing the bill sends a message that the concerns of small businesses cannot be ignored.

Schwab and Siegfreid said complying with the new law appears to be more expensive than initially assumed. Businesses will pay an estimated $7,000 per computer or $12,000 per cash register programmed to calculate the destination sales tax, he said.

“If you consider 14,000 businesses at those prices, you do the math,” Siegfreid said. “And that’s assuming 9,000 to 10,000 will keep doing it by hand.”

But Department of Revenue officials have said many of the 14,000 businesses significantly affected by the 2003 law are now finding compliance relatively easy.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius supported the destination sales tax law last year, but declared an indefinite grace period for merchants to comply.

Kansas collected about $6.5 million in sales taxes last year from remote sellers who were voluntarily complying with the new law. But Siegfreid said $6.5 million was “a drop in the bucket” compared to what the law was costing small businesses to implement.

“Testimony in our last hearing was that there is about 17 percent compliance,” Siegfreid said. “If businesses are upset now, when we force them to comply it’s going to be even worse.”

In other action, Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood, announced that he and 24 other senators — more than enough to pass a bill in the 40-member chamber — have signed a petition declaring support for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ proposal to more than triple spending on Smart Start programs for young children.