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Sales tax Disaster for Small Online Businesses

by | Jun 21, 2018 | foreign business, online business, sales tax

SUPREME COURT ISSUES AN OPINION ALLOWING STATES TO FORCE ONLINE US RETAILERS TO COLLECT SALES TAX

What a disaster for US online businesses! In SD v. Wayfair, the US Supreme Court slapped online retailers the burden of collecting Sales Tax on sales out-of-state. This means small businesses must comply with thousands of state and local sales tax rates and the different laws of each jurisdiction. This was backed by the big online companies such as Amazon, Apple, Walmart, as well as the big storefront retailers.

Compliance will be next to impossible with expensive services and will drive small US online companies out of business, jacking-up prices for consumers. The large online companies and non-US companies will have a big advantage.  Starting a new online business means many people will choose a foreign entity and complicated ownership structures to remain competitive.

Poor decision!

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

Newspaper Summary:

https://nypost.com/2018/06/21/supreme-court-says-states-can-force-online-shoppers-to-pay-sales-tax/
see: http://www.TaxEsq.com

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