§ 6-2.5-9-11 — Findings of general assembly

Indiana § 6-2.5-9-11

• Jurisdiction: Indiana
• Art. 2.5: STATE GROSS RETAIL AND USE TAXES
• Ch. 9: Enforcement and Penalties

Text

The general assembly finds the following:
(1) The inability to effectively collect the gross retail tax or use
tax from remote sellers that deliver tangible personal property,
products transferred electronically, or services directly into
Indiana is seriously eroding the tax base of Indiana and causing
revenue losses and imminent harm to Indiana through the loss of
critical funding for state and local services.
(2) Gross retail tax and use tax revenues are essential in funding
state and local services.
(3) Despite the fact that a use tax is imposed on the storage, use,
or consumption of tangible personal property in Indiana if the
property was acquired in a retail transaction, many remote sellers
actively market sales as "tax free" or as "no sales tax"
transactions.
(4) The structural advantages of remote sellers, including the
absence of point-of-sale tax collection, and the general growth of
the online retail industry make clear that further erosion of
Indiana's gross retail tax base is likely in the near future.
(5) Remote sellers that make a substantial number of deliveries
into Indiana or have large gross revenues from Indiana benefit
extensively from Indiana's market (including the economy
generally) and from the infrastructure in Indiana.
(6) In contrast with the expanding harms caused to Indiana from
this exemption of gross retail tax collection obligations for remote
sellers, the costs of that collection have fallen. Given modern
computing and software options, it is neither unusually difficult
nor burdensome for remote sellers to collect and remit gross retail
taxes associated with sales into Indiana.
(7) The Supreme Court of the United States should reconsider its
doctrine that prevents, under certain circumstances, states from
requiring remote sellers to collect gross retail tax, and as the
findings of this section make clear, this argument has grown
stronger, and the cause more urgent, with time.
(8) Given the urgent need for the Supreme Court of the United
States to reconsider this doctrine, it is necessary for the general
assembly to enact IC 6-2.5-2-1(d), clarifying the state's immediate
intent to require collection of gross retail taxes by remote sellers.
(9) Expeditious review is necessary and appropriate because,
while it may be reasonable notwithstanding this law for remote
sellers to continue to refuse to collect the gross retail tax in light
of existing federal constitutional doctrine, such a refusal causes
imminent harm to Indiana.
(10) It is the intent of the general assembly to apply Indiana's
gross retail tax and use tax obligations to the limit of federal and
state constitutional doctrines and to specify that Indiana law
permits the state to immediately argue in any litigation that such
a constitutional doctrine should be changed to permit the
obligation to collect state gross retail tax as provided in IC 6-2.5-2-1(d).

Legislative History

As added by P.L.247-2017, SEC.5. Amended by P.L.146-2020, SEC.19.