Supreme Court rules states can collect sales tax for online purchases nationwide

[edpc]

Online shoppers could find costs going up after the Supreme Court did away Thursday with a decades-old precedent limiting the ability of states to collect sales tax on certain out-of-state Internet purchases.

The 5-4 ruling called the current rules “unsound and incorrect.”

Currently, businesses shipping a product to another state where it does not have a "physical presence"-- a store, office or warehouse -- are not forced to collect that state's sales tax.       

 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/21/supreme-court-rules-states-can-collect-sales-tax-for-online-purchases-nationwide.html 

[Free Vulcan]

The Supreme Court says states can force online shoppers to pay sales tax.

The 5-4 ruling Thursday is a win for states, who said they were losing out on billions of dollars annually under two decades-old Supreme Court decisions that impacted online sales tax collection.

The high court ruled Thursday to overturn those decisions. They had resulted in some companies not collecting sales tax on every online purchase. The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a product to a state where it didn't have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, it didn't have to collect the state's sales tax. Customers were generally supposed to pay the tax to the state themselves if they don't get charged it, but the vast majority didn't.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-supreme-court-sales-tax-20180621-story.html

[kevindavis007]

Bad ruling..

[driftdiver]

Actually complying with this will be a nightmare

its not just 50 states and their taxes, its county and town level as well.

a nightmare

[Free Vulcan]

I suppose states collecting online sales tax was inevitable ruling or no. States like Connecticut were getting around the physical presence limitation by saying that the cookie that someone like Amazon puts on your computer at purchase is a physical presence, flimsy as that may be. Others were coming up with other tricks to do the same.

Problem with this ruling is that now the barn door is wide open. It allows a state to grab revenue in a unregulated manner that it didn't earn, simply because the resident lives in the state. Especially greedy liberal states like California who are always conspiring to consfiscate new revenue in shady ways.

It's not my problem that an Iowa business didn't have what I wanted and instead I found it in a North Carolina located business. That's life. Make your economy better and you'll get that revenue. This ends up being a revenue grab. I expect states like Cali to try and now say I must pay their sales tax and my state's tax too when I order something from a Cali company.

I guess I'd rather they'd tested each revenue scheme like the cookie-on-your-computer separately, case-by-case, rather than a sweeping, open door judgement like this.

[driftdiver]

So why not sales tax for the buyers location and the sellers?

[guitar4jesus]

Kennedy was joined in the majority by Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch.

[Suppressed]

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf

[guitar4jesus]

Kennedy was joined in the majority by Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch.

[ABX]

Two words Conservatives should never cheer: force and taxation.

[INVAR]

Ah yes, affirming the government's right to tax you for anything and everything - including the air you breathe and the digital space you shop in.

[INVAR]

Two words Conservatives should never cheer: force and taxation.

They do now in the Age of Trump.

[Mod1]

Threads merged.

[ABX]

They do now in the Age of Trump.

This opens up a when can of worms. States can apply taxes to businesses that have no physical location in their state. It is essentially taxing goods transported across state lines.

This is in direct violation of the Constitution, Article 1, Section 9.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

[Suppressed]

This opens up a when can of worms. States can apply taxes to businesses that have no physical location in their state. It is essentially taxing goods transported across state lines.

This is in direct violation of the Constitution, Article 1, Sction 9.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

What's this "Constitution" of which you write?

[driftdiver]

They do now in the Age of Trump.

Taxes have been embraced long before Trump.

[austingirl]

What's this "Constitution" of which you write?

A mythical document is these dark days. This ruling will destroy small on-line retailers who will never be able to comply with the documentation and audits.

[ABX]

A mythical document is these dark days. This ruling will destroy small on-line retailers who will never be able to comply with the documentation and audits.

Yep, while people cheer how this may hurt Amazon, they don't think about the thousand Jane Smiths out there selling arts and crafts on Etsy as an example.

[guitar4jesus]

Yep, while people cheer how this may hurt Amazon, they don't think about the thousand Jane Smiths out there selling arts and crafts on Etsy as an example.

Aye.

[INVAR]

Taxes have been embraced long before Trump.

Not by Conservatives who now , due to Trump are just fine with both the words 'force' and 'tax'.

[Free Vulcan]

This opens up a when can of worms. States can apply taxes to businesses that have no physical location in their state. It is essentially taxing goods transported across state lines.

This is in direct violation of the Constitution, Article 1, Section 9.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

And the thing is, they're taxing now based on your residency and the item being transported to it.

What to stop a state now from saying 'well, you went to Florida on vacation. You spent all sorts of money there, brought some stuff back. You must pay state tax on that now that you're back home.'

What's the difference between that an online sales? The only difference is the method of delivery, you instead of UPS or Fed Ex. Residency is still the same, it was still transported to your house.

Or what's to stop a state from collecting tax from online sales from a resident of another state, since part of that transport occurred within the originiating state?

They've opened the door very wide on the issue.

[ABX]

...and this isn't just keeping up with 50 states tax codes and requirements. There are tens of thousands of tax jurisdictions in those states which require local sales taxes be collected.

Watching various social media feeds right now, small business owners are in a panic.

[Suppressed]

What to stop a state now from saying 'well, you went to Florida on vacation. You spent all sorts of money there, brought some stuff back. You must pay state tax on that now that you're back home.'

@Free Vulcan

Isn't that already the law in most states??  In Pennsylvania, it's called the "Use Tax", and it's to be filed with income tax.

Here's Iowa's page on it, for example:
https://tax.iowa.gov/consumers-use

Use tax applies to, but is not limited to, purchases made tax free through mail-order catalogs, television shopping programs, the Internet, toll-free 800 numbers; magazine subscriptions; and untaxed purchases made while in another state and shipped or otherwise brought into Iowa. Anyone – individuals and businesses – who makes these types of purchases is required to pay consumer’s use tax to the Iowa Department of Revenue.

[INVAR]

...and this isn't just keeping up with 50 states tax codes and requirements. There are tens of thousands of tax jurisdictions in those states which require local sales taxes be collected.

Watching various social media feeds right now, small business owners are in a panic.

Yes, this ruling will do WONDERS for the economy.

Driving ever more of our money into the hands of GOVERNMENT to piss away.

[Free Vulcan]

@Free Vulcan

Isn't that already the law in most states??  In Pennsylvania, it's called the "Use Tax", and it's to be filed with income tax.

Here's Iowa's page on it, for example:
https://tax.iowa.gov/consumers-use

Sounds like Iowa updated their law at some point, because the use tax never covered things you physically bought in another state and brought home.

Which is the very reason people hate the use tax, because it's a shady revenue grab, and why most states don't enforce it.

Now that door is wide open online, and with most people using electronic cards to purchase items, it will expand just like I speculated.