Declan McCullagh writing for CNET News says that in spite of being one of the most liberal Justices on the court, John Paul Stevens is the author of arguably the most important pro-business/anti-tax opinion of the e-commerce age:
Amazon.com, Newegg.com, Overstock.com, and other major Internet retailers can trace much of their growth in the last decade to Stevens’ 1992 opinion that said, unambiguously, that they cannot be required to collect sales taxes on out-of-state sales.
That gave them a competitive advantage over traditional rivals like Borders and Best Buy that did charge sales taxes–while irking state tax collectors immeasurably.
In Quill v. North Dakota, Stevens wrote that such “vendors are free from state-imposed duties to collect sales and use taxes.” He was talking about a catalog retailer named Quill Corporation that sold about $200 million of office supplies a year, but the decision swept in future e-commerce sales as well.
McCullagh points out, however, that Stevens’ opinion (written for a unanimous court) holds that it would be constitutional under the Commerce clause for Congress to step in and allow states to collect such taxes:
Stevens’ opinion on behalf of a unanimous court did stress that the U.S. Congress is “free to decide whether, when, and to what extent the states may burden interstate mail-order concerns” by requiring sellers to collect taxes. That presaged a political battle on Capitol Hill, pitting governors against Internet firms, that has lasted at least nine years, with no resolution so far, and shows no sign of abating anytime soon.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment