This past month, the Illinois State Supreme Court determined the state’s affiliate nexus law—a law requiring out-of-state companies with advertising affiliates in the state to collect and remit sales tax—violated federal law.
In the majority opinion, Justice Anne Burke ruled that Illinois’ attempt to force collection of sales tax by out-of-state retailers based on their decision to use in-state online advertising rather than traditional print advertising represented a discriminatory taxation regime on the Internet and therefore violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.
No one understands the significance of last month’s Illinois State Supreme Court decision better than FatWallet founder Tim Storm. A year after the affiliate nexus law’s introduction, Storm and his 54 employees piled into thirty-odd cars and moved from their business headquarters in Rockton, Illinois to Beloit, Wisconsin—a five mile drive across state lines.
This appeared a strange, if not foolish, business decision for Storm and FatWallet. The company spent upwards of $100,000 preparing for the move and left behind a $5 million custom-built office in Rockton. Yet, FatWallet’s bottom line depended on getting out of Illinois.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanlegislator.org ...
