Government
Taxing Online Sales Won’t Save Cities From the Retail Apocalypse
The Supreme Court’s year-old Wayfair decision allows most U.S. states to collect sales tax from online shopping. Can cities expect a revenue bump?
As the holiday shopping season approaches, more governments than ever will reap the benefits of all that spending. That’s because in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban on governments taxing online sales. More than a year after the South Dakota v. Wayfair decision, states have now started collecting, and some have already seen a slight boost in sales tax revenue. That bump could be even greater as the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shop-a-thons kick off the end-of-year spending spree.
But it’s unlikely that cities will see much of it.