Sales Tax: When ‘Animal Farm’ Meets the Metaphysical World of the Internet

In Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the Supreme Court concluded that it would be too much of a burden and too expensive to require small businesses to track the rates and rules of 10,000 taxing jurisdictions. However, that ruling was made in 1992. Since then, technological innovation has produced easy-to-use, inexpensive, highly credible solutions to address this burden. Those who are quoting the undue burden rationale as a basis for their opposition to imposing sales taxes are either still living in 1992 or they're trying to benefit unfairly from confusion surrounding the rapid growth of the internet. Online merchants can comply with sales tax just as easily as brick-and-mortar businesses.