This week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding sales tax collection on internet purchases sure feels like government finally catching up with the reality of modern commerce.
The decision erases the existing law wherein only stores with actual physical locations in a state had to collect sales tax on internet purchases. If the seller had no physical presence in a state, the thinking went, it shouldn’t be obligated to collect sales taxes in the state. (Technically, we were all supposed to be paying that sales tax anyway, but it’s impossible to enforce and almost no Utahns do that.