You are probably reading a lot about this landmark sales tax case. And, your staff and stakeholders are probably asking a lot of questions about what it means to state and local governments.

The Avenu Government Relations team was at the Court and participated in a roundtable with national experts and practitioners in sales tax. The post oral-argument event was hosted and sponsored by McDermott Will and Emery, the Council on State Taxation (COST) and the Bloomberg Tax.

Collection and administration of sales tax is a complicated issue and even more so for remote / internet transactions. The confusing nature of this issue was evident by questions posed during oral arguments by members of the Court. The Justices grilled counsel for both sides regarding matters of constitutional law and practical application of tax collection under the proposed South Dakota statute. For example, Justice Sotomayor asked, “Is there any brief I can read or any source to determine what constitutes a small business in America?”

Access the full Oral Argument transcript here.

What will happen next? The consensus of our round table participants is that the Court will issue a decision in June, and we don’t know what it will say.

In the meantime to learn more about this issue, the myriad of possible outcomes and what it could mean for your community, contact Avenu.  Avenu is available to help your community implement and prepare for complicated tax matters.

Contact: Fran Mancia, Vice President of Government Relations at Fran.Mancia@avenuinsights.com.