{"id":24712,"date":"2019-02-01T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T17:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24712"},"modified":"2019-02-01T18:30:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T00:30:55","slug":"sales-tax-requirements-for-remote-sellers-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24712","title":{"rendered":"Sales tax requirements for remote sellers considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony on three bills Jan. 31 that would require out-of-state internet retailers to collect and remit state sales tax on purchases made by Nebraska residents.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Briese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last June in South Dakota v. Wayfair<\/em> that a state may require online retailers without a physical presence in the state to collect and remit state sales tax.<\/p>\n

In a July statement, the state Department of Revenue said remote sellers engaged in business in Nebraska must, before Jan. 1, 2019, begin collecting and remitting tax on sales made to customers in Nebraska. The department said it would administer the sales tax collection consistent with the court\u2019s ruling, which upheld South Dakota\u2019s exception for small retailers with sales of $100,000 or less or 200 or fewer annual transactions in the state.<\/p>\n

LB18, introduced by Albion Sen. Tom Briese, LB284, sponsored by Omaha Sen. John McCollister, and LB291, sponsored by Elkhorn Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, would require online retailers exceeding either of those thresholds to collect and remit state sales tax.<\/p>\n

LB18 also would require the department to determine the amount of sales tax collected and remitted by remote sellers each year, and it would direct that amount to the state\u2019s property tax credit cash fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that we owe it to Nebraskans to utilize any new revenue judiciously,\u201d Briese said, \u201cand that means directing it to property tax relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John McCollister<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB284 and LB291 also would require \u201cmarketplace facilitators\u201d or \u201cmultivendor marketplace platforms\u201d\u2014online marketplaces such as Amazon or Ebay\u2014to collect and remit state sales tax for the smaller sellers they serve if the marketplaces meet the minimum thresholds.<\/p>\n

\u201cLB284 acknowledges the role that a marketplace facilitator plays in a large proportion of sales on the internet,\u201d McCollister said. \u201cSince the marketplace facilitator is in the best position to compute, collect and remit the sales tax on those sales, under LB284 it will have a duty to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Curry, policy director at the Platte Institute, testified in support of all three bills. Although the state Department of Revenue requires remote sellers to begin collecting and remitting state sales tax as of this year, she said, it cannot legally enforce that regulation because it is not in state law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Supreme Court\u2019s decision does allow sales tax on e-commerce and remote sales,\u201d Curry said, \u201cNebraska still has to update its statutes with provisions of the court in order to protect itself from future legal challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Otto, president of the Nebraska Retail Federation, testified in support of LB284 and LB291 on behalf of the federation and the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association. To protect Nebraska brick-and-mortar retailers that compete with online sellers, he said, state law needs to include the minimum sales thresholds and a requirement that online marketplaces collect and remit state sales taxes for third-party sellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do only the first one I mentioned,\u201d Otto said, \u201cwe will not have leveled the playing field for Nebraska businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Lou Ann Linehan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

State Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton testified in support of LB291, saying it is needed to provide clarity and protection for online sellers that meet the thresholds and to enhance the department\u2019s ability to enforce collection of the tax.<\/p>\n

However, he disagreed with a Legislative Fiscal Office estimate that LB291 would increase state revenue by approximately $19 million over the next two fiscal years. He said any additional revenue attributable to the Wayfair<\/em> decision was included in the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board\u2019s October forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not anticipate this influx of revenue,\u201d Fulton said, \u201cand that\u2019s important as you guys are setting your budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its fiscal note, the LFO states that the board\u2019s forecast included only the estimated sales tax revenue from marketplace platforms that collect and remit state sales tax voluntarily as a result of Wayfair<\/em>. The LFO estimates an increase in state revenue as the remaining sellers begin collecting and remitting state sales tax as required by LB291.<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to the bills and the committee took no immediate action on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony on three bills Jan. 31 that would require out-of-state internet retailers to collect and remit state sales tax on purchases made by Nebraska residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-24712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-tom-briese"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/LB18Briese1-31-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24744,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24712\/revisions\/24744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}