Texas Is Among 35 States Asking the Supreme Court to Hear an Online Sales Tax Case

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to solve a longtime issue of when states can collect sales taxes from online consumer purchases - a topic that Congress has refused to address.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the Colorado Attorney General's amicus brief along with 33 other State Attorneys general in support of South Dakota's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.The states are asking the court to hear the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Overstock and Newegg and reconsider another case from 1992 which forbids states from collecting sales tax from customers outside of their states. A 25-year-old decision in the Quill Corp. v. North Dakota gave internet-only retailers a pass on collecting sales taxes from customers in states where the seller didn't have a physical presence.As online shopping caught on with consumers and internet-only retailers grew into formidable competitors, the retail industry has said the ruling gave e-commerce retailers an automatic price advantage over local brick-and-mortar stores.In recent years, the Retail Industry Leaders Association is one of the trade groups that has lobbied Congress to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act which would make internet sales tax purchases uniform across states. "Overwhelming bipartisan support from such a large number of State Attorneys General shows just how critical this issue is to states across the country that have been grappling with the negative impact of Quill," said Deborah White, president and general counsel of the retail group.The Texas Comptroller's Office estimated Texas is losing $1 billion in state and local sales taxes every year.  Continue reading...