The Wayfair Sales Tax Decision (Nightmare) and How It Affects the Printing Industry

The Wayfair Decision (Nightmare) ...

Ordering home goods from Wayfair is so much fun. If you need door hooks, kitchen tongs, furniture, or just about anything for your home, all you have to do is go online, click around, then in a day or two a package arrives on your doorstep. We all do it. We all love it. Besides the convenience, another not-so-hidden benefit was that no sales tax was applied to your invoice. This was allowed because Wayfair did not have a "physical presence" in your state (unless you live in Massachusetts, where Wayfair is located).

This sales tax exemption based solely on the nexus rules of "physical presence" ended in June 2018 in accordance with a Supreme Court decision. The new nexus rule of "economic presence" along with "physical presence" is now the law of the land.

South Dakota v. Wayfair were the parties to this Supreme Court case that is changing the entire sales tax landscape in the U.S. This landmark decision also affected Amazon, Dell, and all online retailers.

So, how does this case affect your printing company?

By collateral damage, ANY company that sells and delivers tangible products (i.e. printed materials), either physically or electronically, into a state is now subject to these new rules. Services are also subject to these new rules in some states. The proponents of the new rules cite the uneven playing field that existed where the onus was on the buyer to voluntarily report and pay USE taxes (the sales tax equivalent), and that home state sellers were therefore competitively disadvantaged by the out-of-state sellers who were not required to charge sales tax.

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