Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ken.) says lawmakers from both sides of the aisle believe the Supreme Court made the right call when it comes to allowing states to force online retailers to collect a sales tax.
“The majority of Congress favors — and I would say on a bipartisan basis — favors this decision because everyone has seen the impact the internet retail business has seen on local merchants and local businesses,” Yarmuth told the Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
He thinks the ruling is a victory for brick-and-mortar stores and local communities that have taken a hit following the rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon.
“What internet sales have done to real estate values, commercial value, shopping centers — seeing their main tenants leave — it has had a real negative impact on local communities,” Yarmuth said.
But the ruling could also raise prices for online shoppers by increasing sales taxes.
One retail industry executive says some the sales tax numbers are “7 or 8 percent and you would expect to see that passed through.”
Mattie Duppler, a senior fellow at the conservative National Taxpayers Union, warned that “taxpayers should be worried.”
“The notion that the Supreme Court can put its thumb on the scale at one point in time and say ‘this is the the regulatory structure that will work’ I think is very short-sighted,” Duppler told the Hill.TV.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a South Dakota law, overturning a 1992 court precedent barring states from requiring businesses that have no physical presence in the state to collect their sales taxes.
This decision comes after one federal report released last year found that state and local governments lost out on an estimate $8 to $13 billion in tax revenue because they couldn’t collect sales taxes from online retailers.
—Tess Bonn
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