After Supreme Court ruling, Texas bills would bring in $850 million in online sales tax

[TexasTowelie]

by Edgar Walters, Texas Tribune


Texans who shop online could soon see purchase prices go up — filling the state treasury by roughly a half-billion dollars over the next two years — thanks to a proposed new sales tax levy on out-of-state sellers.

A pair of bills unanimously advanced by the Texas Senate on Friday would allow the state to collect sales tax on items sold by vendors who do not have a physical presence in Texas. A 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. held that such taxes were constitutional.

One bill allows for the Texas Comptroller to identify a single tax rate to apply to remote sellers and is expected to generate $300 million over the next two years. Because local taxing jurisdictions in Texas have varying sales tax rates, ranging from 6.25 to 8.25 percent, lawmakers say the bill is intended to simplify online vendors’ sales tax calculations.

Lawmakers already assumed they would have the additional $300 million available to them after the Supreme Court ruling, so the bill would have no effect on the 2020-2021 budget that lawmakers are currently deliberating. That bill was agreed to by both chambers and heads next to Gov. Greg Abbott.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/03/texas-bills-would-bring-850-million-online-sales-tax/

[msongs]

1. and here I thought republicans were against higher taxes. hypocrites nt

[TexasTowelie]

2. Republicans aren't smart enough to know how to shop online

or use an ATM either.