eBay Calls Massachusetts Sales Tax Provision Onerous

eBay called a sales tax provision included in Massachusetts lawmakers’ budget bill “onerous.” The bill heads to conference committee for negotiation before the budget package is presented to the governor, eBay noted.

The opinion about the provision was included in a post on the eBay Main Street blog with an update on the latest sales tax legislation being considered by numerous states in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota vs. Wayfair.

“The eBay government relations team has been actively engaged across the country as individual states have considered Internet sales tax legislation,” eBay wrote. “To date, 31 states have enacted legislation establishing marketplace collection requirements and a number more are considering bills.”

Numerous states are enacting Marketplace Facilitator laws that put the burden of collecting and remitting sales taxes on marketplaces instead of merchants, a development that many sellers welcome even if the marketplaces do not.

In addition to the Massachusetts bill, eBay provided updates on developments in Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, Maryland, Colorado, and Texas – you can read the post on the eBayMainStreet.com website.

Also of interest to sellers and not covered in the eBay post is the dismissal by the Massachusetts Superior Court of a lawsuit filed by online retailers against the Commonwealth regarding the retroactive application of the state’s economic nexus regulation, according to a post by the Sales Tax Institute.

The retailers in the lawsuit began to collect and remit Massachusetts sales tax on June 21, 2018, when Wayfair was decided, but Massachusetts sent the retailers a Notice of Intent to Assess taxes for the period from October 1, 2017 up to June 21, 2018.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.