Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear South Dakota v. Wayfair. With this move, there is a real opportunity to bring online sales taxing into the 21st century, level the playing field for local retailers, and generate hundreds of millions in additional revenue.
The Chamber has advocated in recent years for congressional action on the issue of online sales tax, particularly through the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). Such a measure would alleviate the competitive disadvantage our brick-and-mortar retailers face against large online giants, like eBay or Wayfair.
If the SCOTUS rules that online retailers are required to remit sales tax, there will inevitably be a debate over where the money should go. We’ll ask our elected leaders to renew the commitment they made in 2013 to use additional sales tax revenue from the MFA to fund transportation priorities.
We are hopeful for a favorable SCOTUS decision; in the mean time, we continue to urge Congress to take action on online sales tax fairness so that implementation is uniform across all states.