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<i>Online Extra:</i> How the Supreme Court's Online Sales Tax Case Could Affect Law Firms

By Marcia Coyle
May 01, 2018

A tax nightmare could face big law firms and other multistate service providers if the U.S. Supreme Court this term requires retailers to collect sales taxes in states where the business has no physical presence.

The justices heard arguments on April 17 in the case South Dakota v. Wayfair. South Dakota and its supporters urge the high court to overrule its 1992 decision that said only retailers with a physical presence within a state can be required to collect that state's sales tax. Numerous state and local governments say a ruling for South Dakota could mean billions of additional dollars for cash-hungry government budgets.

Tax attorney David Fruchtman, chair of the state and local taxation practice at New York's Rimon, filed an amicus brief on his own behalf and in support of neither party in the case. He takes no position on whether the 1992 decision Quill v. North Dakota — central to the dispute facing the court — should be cast aside. Instead, he urges the justices to keep the physical presence rule for sales taxes on service providers.

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