The process will be more of a struggle in some states than others.
State and local governments, responding to a June U.S. Supreme Court decision, have begun to collect sales taxes from out-of-state retailers. But depending on tax systems already in place, the process will go much more smoothly in some states than in others.
Analysts expect new rules being drafted around the country in response to the South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. decision to deliver billions of dollars annually to state coffers. They will also force retailers to navigate an untested patchwork system stretched across the nation’s 12,000 state and local taxing districts.
The high court decision was meant to level a playing field, where for decades sales tax laws that applied to brick-and-mortar stores often didn’t apply to online retailers. State and local governments saw an end to years of lost revenue from the booming online retail sector. Offline retailers celebrated the ruling as an overdue corrective.
Route Fifty
By John Tomasic,
Special to Route Fifty
NOVEMBER 28, 2018