Posted on 06/24/2018 12:56:31 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
One question before the Supreme Court this term was a big one: As technology evolves, how do our laws governing commerce evolve with it?
The answer, issued in the ruling held in a 5-4 decision on Thursday, is a bad one for taxpayers.
Many proponents of an online sales tax have argued that we must completely revisit what we know about interstate commerce, and create illusory tax regimes to contemplate a brave new order of online transactions.
In reality, none of this is true. For one, while it has been 26 years since the Supreme Court visited the issue in Quill Corp v. North Dakota, the principles outlined in that decision translate easily to today’s retail environment. In that decision, the Supreme Court declared that a business must have a physical presence inside a state in order to be exposed to that state’s tax authority. This "physical presence" doctrine requires no further clarification when applied to today’s online era.
It did, however, prevent states from taxing outside their own geographic boundaries. And for good reason — politicians should not be granted the power to tax citizens who cannot hold them accountable for that leaching.
South Dakota, chafing at these restraints, attempted to flout the Constitution’s obvious deference to Congress on matters of interstate commerce and crafted a law in 2016 that required all businesses with effectively any business nexus with South Dakota to pay taxes to the state. As the National Taxpayers Union stated in its amicus brief to the court: “This obligation apparently attaches regardless of the location or domicile, domestic or foreign, of the seller and even of the purchaser. An Illinois resident may purchase a product in New York for delivery to South Dakota that would trigger this monitoring requirement.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
More like an FU to homebound seniors and other disabled people who will now have to pay more to order on line.
Some states tax income and also “service” at the time of sale as part of sales tax. KY just made a big grab in this area (imposing sales tax on services.) So much for moving there...
Thanks for the reply!
Indeed, should I sell “service” to someone in KY, for example (I have had customers there in the past), Federal and State income tax in my State apply, PLUS the new service sales tax in KY may apply.
BTW, I ran across THIS while trying to look into KY’s new services sales tax — I believe it is not current, and more categories are now taxable...
Good God. This is just “gag a maggot” rule making - and all too typical of government...
cc: to monkeyshine
Yep, I got all the way to the bottom of the document — old info - much more is taxed now...
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