A legislative committee met to iron out a remedy to the Wayfair Decision. That Supreme Court ruling could require New Hampshire businesses to collect and remit taxes for other states. No one, regardless of party, seems to want that at least and until New Hampshire Democrats find a way to institute a tax they could then try to make other state’s collect.
We’re not there yet and hopefully never will be, but that’s not even why I’m writing this.
Kevin Landrigan, writing for the Union Leader, has a paragraph in his report on this blessed gathering that puzzled me.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Wayfair decision last month, which ended a 50-year ban on charging online sales taxes even in New Hampshire and the four other states without sales taxes, sparked this aggressive response.
A 50-year ban on charging online sales taxes? Fifty years?
Turns out he’s right.
It is true that ubiquitous online selling as we understand it in 2018 didn’t really “take off” until the early 1990’s, but according to the internet, and we all know if it’s on the internet it must be true, the first “online” transaction occurred in 1979, 49-years ago.
That last year is a gimme.
As for the by-product of the committee,
The proposed measure creates a multi-step process that requires other states to provide notice to the AG’s office before they try to collect sales taxes. It bans New Hampshire sellers from giving customer information to out-of-state tax collectors unless that request is first supplied to the AG. State prosecutors are given the power to make sure these out-of-state tax collectors are following New Hampshire laws.
The goal is to amass a byzantine maze of procedures, rules, and regulations to dissuade the other states from trying to force New Hampshire business owners to do their dirty work. I have to confess that I’m not a fan of government building barriers in this manner, but I understand why it appears necessary.
I can’t comment much more until we actually see a piece of legislation whose nits we may then pick. Until then, I’ll leave you with this.
