The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that states can now enforce sales tax for online purchases. Trump encouraged the decision on behalf of the states.
Previous Decisions
This reverses the decision by the court from two decades ago. The previous laws said that businesses didn’t have to charge sales tax if they were shipping to a state where they didn’t have a physical location. Customers were supposed to keep a record of their online purchases. They were then supposed to pay the total sales tax due at the end of the year. But without any governmental tracking of purchases, most people did not follow this law.
How the Decision Will Affect States
Much has changed in the online landscape in the last 20 years. More and more people are shopping online versus in person. The largest segment of in-person purchases are for food, which is tax exempt. With this shift in consumer behavior, states are losing out on billions of dollars’ worth of taxes every year.
The case that prompted the decision was from South Dakota. The state doesn’t collect income tax from its residents, so they rely heavily on sales tax. Now, it and other states could see a significant increase in income. With companies charging and paying sales tax to states, residents could see a drop in state income taxes.
How the Decision Will Affect Businesses
Many online retailers did charge sales tax under the old law. Companies like Walmart and Apple have physical stores almost everywhere they shipped. They argued that companies that didn’t have physical locations were able to charge lower prices because they didn’t charge tax.
