Among the super-hot SALT topics at the 2018 SEATA meeting in Nashville were the impact of recent federal income tax changes on state income taxes and the aftermath of Wayfair. Along with two colleagues, I presented at a session focusing on “game-changing” cases in the various Southeastern states. At another session, the topic was
JW SALT Heads to SEATA
JW SALT partner Bill Backstrom is speaking today during the 2018 Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (SEATA) Conference. SEATA is comprised of the tax administration agencies of twelve states in the southeast. Bill will share his insight on the panel “Significant Cases in the Southeast and Around the Country.”
Not So Fast: Louisiana State and Local Sales Taxes in a Post-Wayfair World
As word spread about the Supreme Court’s opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Dkt. No. 17-494, 485 U.S. (June 21, 2018), tax administrators around the country popped open bottles of champagne and began toasting the end of the “physical presence” substantial nexus standard. The sounds of celebration were, at least initially, particularly deafening in Louisiana, with its sixty-three (63) autonomous parish taxing jurisdictions that levy, administer and collect local sales and use tax on behalf of numerous cities, towns, districts and other local jurisdictions. Remote sellers might have considered downing a drink or two to drown their sorrows at the thought of potentially having to navigate the complex systems of state and local sales taxes in Louisiana.
As tax administrators continued to read the Wayfair opinion, however, a sobering reality began to set in that, at least in the short term, Louisiana’s various taxing jurisdictions are in no better position to force remote sellers to collect and remit state and local sales taxes than they were before the Wayfair decision (and perhaps even a worse one).
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The Taxman Cometh: Mississippi Sales and Use Taxes in a Post-Wayfair World
In December 2017, the Mississippi Department of Revenue finalized a new sales and use tax regulation addressing remote sellers and establishing a $250,000 bright-line nexus standard. The department began that process in January 2017 by issuing a proposed regulation and refined it following a public hearing held in February. The regulation positioned the state to take advantage of any repeal of Quill’s physical presence test, but the department stated it would not enforce the new rule until the Supreme Court took that step. Now that Quill’s physical presence rule has been invalidated in Wayfair, taxpayers should expect the department to move forward with these remote-use tax collection efforts. The following information should help summarize Mississippi’s current rules and identify several important details and questions that have yet to be answered.
Statutory Background
Mississippi law [Section 27-67-4(2)(e)] has long required remote sellers to collect use tax if they have nexus with the state by “purposefully or systematically exploiting the consumer market provided by this state.” This could be accomplished “by any media-assisted, media-facilitated or media-solicited means, including, but not limited to, direct mail advertising, unsolicited distribution of catalogues, computer-assisted shopping, television, radio or other electronic media, or magazine or newspaper advertisements or other media.” This collection obligation is contained within the use tax code, not the sales tax code as may be the case in some other states.
Regulatory Bright-Line Rule
The final regulation specifies that sellers have a “substantial economic presence” if their sales into the state exceed $250,000 for the prior 12 months. The original proposed regulation would have based the sales threshold on the prior calendar year, so this change means sellers should track Mississippi transactions on a rolling, monthly basis if they are not otherwise registered. Unlike other states, Mississippi does not specify any minimum number of transactions to create nexus, and Department of Revenue officials have stated informally that a single transaction may meet the requirement when coupled with the other “market exploitation” criteria discussed below.
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When Things Get Hot, Put the Bugs in the Pot!
It is July in South Louisiana and it is hot and muggy. But that did not stop last weekend’s crawfish boil. Lately, I have become weary of reading about Wayfair, Kraft, repatriation, BEAT, FDII, GILTI, retroactivity, the slow erosion of the Chevron doctrine, and all of the other hot topics boiling in