You Might Have to Start Paying Sales Tax on the Stuff You Buy Online

Last Friday, the Supreme Court decided to hear a case that could ultimately require online retailers to collect sales tax, which means the days of tax-free online shopping could soon be numbered.

As reported by Retail Dive, the court was petitioned by South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley (R), who asked the court to “‘level the playing field’ by overruling the physical presence requirement set as a precedent 25 years ago in the Quill Corp v. North Dakota case.”

In that case, for those wondering (I was most definitely wondering), SCOTUS ruled that states “could not require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax unless they had a physical presence in the state.”

And for the better part of three decades, that precedent held pretty strong. Even when, in 2016, North Dakota tried to implement a law that would have required “out-of-state merchants with annual in-state sales totaling more than $100,000 or 200 separate transactions to collect and remit sales tax” (that law was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court).

Now, however, things might actually change. Not only did SCOTUS decide to hear the case, but they “also urged Congress to address the issue through legislative efforts.”

And it’s not just a lone attorney general and a deliberative body on a crusade, either. Retailers and trade organizations have consistently lobbied Congress to pass legislation to put a cap on what they see as “competitive advantages that the ruling inadvertently extended to e-commerce players.”

And when you add to that the $1.5 trillion tax-cut-shaped hole in our operating budget moving forward, which can’t only be filled with money taken from entitlement programs (as much as the GOP may try), this really might be the beginning of the end.

So long dope era, we will miss you.

You can read more about it at Retail Dive.

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