Chamber, Governor Applaud Supremes’ Online Sales Tax Ruling

Now, under this new decision, even if a company doesn’t have a store, warehouse, or office in a state, its internet sales to that state’s residents can be taxed. But the promise of additional revenue from online sales taxes may push more states to join. But the vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said a lot of forces stand between the promise and realization of a new revenue stream.

Roberts, in dissent, said e-commerce has exploded in the United States in part because there have been uniform rules. “The largest physical retailers are now also the largest online retailers”.

The high court called the 1992 decision limiting states’ ability to tax online retailers “unsound and incorrect”.

Rep. Annie Kuster said, “this misguided ruling will subject (small businesses) to thousands of taxing jurisdictions and burdensome red tape across the country”.

What puzzled Davids was why the high court voted 5-4 instead of 9-0. For others, it also included the added bonus of not having to pay sales tax from select merchants. As a result, states argued they would lose millions in sales tax each year. OH has even asserted that online retailers have a “presence” in the state that obligates them to collect taxes if they put cookies on their customers’ computers.

In the digital era, the costs of complying with different tax regimes “are largely unrelated to whether a company happens to have a physical presence in a state”, Kennedy wrote. That number is believed to have risen since then with the growth of online commerce in recent years.

The South Dakota law and others like it could yet face legal challenges on other grounds.

In a statement by Rauschenberger, there will be criteria businesses have to meet before they are required to collect sales tax for the state.

While the decision could eventually see online prices rise, it won’t have much of an effect on Amazon.

In 2013, federal legislation that would have required sales tax on all purchases passed the Senate, with North Carolina senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan supporting, but it never made it out of the House.

Ricketts had recommended that the state wait for the Supreme Court decision as a compromise.

Governor Eric Holcomb is also expressing cautious optimism saying he supports the move but will be “taking a careful look at the ruling to better understand it’s implications for IN”.

The retail trade association argued in a friend-of-the-court brief previous year that the court’s 1992 Quill Corp. v. However, smaller e-tailers like Newegg used to have a no-tax advantage. Businesses that want to begin collecting the taxes right away, and send them to the state, can register with the department. At the time, the ruling was focused on mail-order catalogs, but it has held up even as shopping has transitioned to online instead.

Miller said this ruling could bring the two closer to being equal. “This is a victory for Alabama’s Main Street retailers”.