We are now more than 16 months removed from the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision of South Dakota v. Wayfair. This decision unlocked the ability for U.S. states to impose a sales tax collection and remittance responsibility on remote sellers based solely on their economic connection to that state. Within that time, virtually every state imposing a sales tax (except Missouri and Florida) have enacted remote collection requirements. In most of those states (except Louisiana) those requirements are legally in effect, meaning the requirements are fully enforceable against remote sellers. In fact, in a number of places, remote collection rules have been on the books for more than a year.
To date, many states have been focused on creating the necessary framework to facilitate compliance. For example, the state of Colorado has spent considerable energy explaining its rules to any taxpayer willing to listen. Likewise, Texas, whose requirements came into effect last October, has crafted simplified requirements for remote sellers. States have yet to wrap their brains around the idea that standard audit practices cannot be effective in a world where they must enforce rules against hundreds of thousands of additional taxpayers, but it’s only a matter of time before we see a concerted attempt at enforcement.
Source: SOVOS
