State v. Wayfair Inc.

2017 SD 56, 901 N.W.2d 754, 2017 S.D. LEXIS 111, 2017 WL 4051554
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
Docket28160
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2017 SD 56 (State v. Wayfair Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wayfair Inc., 2017 SD 56, 901 N.W.2d 754, 2017 S.D. LEXIS 111, 2017 WL 4051554 (S.D. 2017).

Opinion

SEVERSON, Justice

[111.] South Dakota has no state income tax and relies on retail sales and use taxes for much of its revenue. Pursuant to state statute, sales tax is generally collected by sellers selling merchandise in this state at the point of sale and is remitted to the state by those sellers. SDCL 10-45-27.3. 1 Decisions from the United States Supreme Court interpreting the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution prohibit the State of South Dakota from imposing this collection obligation on sellers with no physical presence in the state. As Internet sales by these sellers have risen, state revenues have decreased. Paced with declining revenues, the 2016 South Dakota Legislature passed legislation extending the obligation to collect and remit sales tax to sellers with no physical presence in the state. S.B. 106, 2016 Legis. Assemb., 91st Sess. § 1 (S.D. 2016). 2 The Legislature specifically passed the legislation to challenge the Supreme Court’s. Commerce Clause decisions. Id. § 8. Pursuant to the legislation, the State of South Dakota commenced a declaratory judgment action in circuit court seeking a declaration that certain Internet sellers (Sellers) 3 with no physical presence in the state must comply with the requirements of the 2016 legislation. Id. §- 2. Sellers moved for summary judgment. Adhering to Supreme Court precedent, the circuit court granted the motion, entered judgment for Sellers, and enjoined the State from enforcing the 2016 legislation. The State appeals. We affirm.

Pacts and Procedural History

[¶2.] Generally, sellers selling merchandise in South Dakota have an obligation to collect and remit sales tax on each transaction to the Department of Revenue. SDCL 10-45-27.3. However, the applicability of this requirement to sellers with no physical presence in á state has been limited by the Supreme Court’s interpretations of the Commerce Clause since at least 1967. The Commerce Clause generally grants “exclusive authority [to] Congress to regulate trade between the States[.]” Nat’l Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Dep’t of Rev. of the St. of Ill., 386 U. S. 753, 756, 87 S.Ct. 1389, 1391, 18 L.Ed. 2d 505 (1967). 4 In 1967, the Supreme Court held that the Commerce Clause prohibited Illinois from requiring a mail order seller in-Missouri to collect and remit use tax 5 to Illinois for-merchandise sold and shipped into that state. The seller had no physical presence in Illinois, and its only contacts with that state were" by - mail or common carrier. 6 The Court reasoned that exposing the seller’s interstate business.to local “variations in rates of tax ... and record-keeping requirements” would violate the purpose of the Commerce Clause “to ensure a national economy free from .,. unjustifiable local entanglements.” Id. at 759-60, 87 S.Ct. at 1393. The-Court concluded that “[u]nder the Constitution, this [was] a domain where Congress alone [had] the power of regulation and control.” Id. 7

[¶3.] In 1992, the Supreme Court, while limiting application of its due process analysis, reaffirmed Bellas Hess’s Commerce Clause limitations in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298, 112 S.Ct. 1904, 119 L.Ed. 2d 91 (1992). In that case, the Court held that a mail-order house with no physical presence in North Dakota could not be required to collect and remit use tax to 'that state for “property purchased for storage, use, or consumption within the State.” Id', at 302, 112 S.Ct. at 1908. Despite later developments in its Commerce Clause jurisprudence, the Court: adhered to the “bright-line rule” of Bellas Hess on the basis that it “encourage[d] settled expectations and ... foster[ed] investment by businesses and individuals.” Id. at 316, 112 S.Ct. at 1915. . .

[¶4.] In 2015, the Supreme Court reviewed a Colorado law that instead of imposing the obligation to collect and remit usé tax on sellers with no physical presence in that staté, imposed the obligation “to notify ... customers of their use-tax liability and to report” sale's information back to the state. Direct Marketing, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. at 1127. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the United States District Court had jurisdiction under the Tax Injunction Act (28 U.S.C. § 1341) over a suit challenging the new law on Commerce Clause grounds. Justice Kennedy, however, took the opportunity to write a concurrence questioning the advisability of continuing to follow Bellas Hess and Quill in light of later Commerce Clause jurisprudence and “in view of the dramatic technological and social changes that [have] taken place in our increasingly interconnected economy.” Id. at -, 135 S.Ct. at 1135 (Kennedy, J., concurring). Despite noting the “startling revenue shortfall in many States” due to Bellas Hess and Quill, Justice Kennedy observed that Direct Marketing did not raise reconsideration of those decisions “in a manner appropriate for the Court to address it.” Id. Nevertheless, he concluded that Direct Marketing provided “the means to note the importance of reconsidering doubtful authority.” Id. He invited “[t]he legal system [to] find an appropriate case for [the Supreme] Court to reexamine Quill and Bellas Hess.” Id.

[¶5.] With this legal backdrop, the South Dakota Legislature began its 2016 session concerned with its ability to maintain state revenue in the face of increasing Internet sales and their effect on sales tax collections. 8 Senate Bill 106 was introduced during the session as: “An Act to provide for the collection of sales taxes from certain remote sellers, to establish certain Legislative findings, and to declare an emergency.” S.B. 106, 2016 Legis. Assemb., 91st Sess. (S.D. 2016). The Act provided that any sellers of “tangible personal property” in South Dakota without a “physical presence in the state ... shall remit” sales tax according to the same procedures as sellers with “a physical presence[.]” Id. § 1. However, the Act limited this obligation to sellers with “gross revenue” from sales in South Dakota of over $100,000 per calendar year or with 200 or more “separate transactions” in the state within the same time frame. Id. §§ 1-2. The Act authorized the State to bring a declaratory judgment action in circuit court against any person believed to meet the Act’s criteria “to establish that the obligation to remit sales tax is applicable and valid under state and federal law.” Id. § 2. The Act further authorized a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment in the action. Id. It also provided that the filing of the action “operates as an injunction during the pen-dency of the” suit prohibiting the State from enforcing the Act’s obligations. Id. § 3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2017 SD 56, 901 N.W.2d 754, 2017 S.D. LEXIS 111, 2017 WL 4051554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wayfair-inc-sd-2017.