An online florist’s sales tax challenge won’t ripen at the U.S. Supreme Court, where the company’s attorneys urged justices to reshape sales tax law for the e-commerce age ( Am. Bus. USA Corp. v. Fla. Dep’t of Revenue , U.S., No. 16-567, cert. denied 2/21/17 ).
American Business USA Corp., which has its headquarters in Florida, argued that the state Department of Revenue couldn’t require sales tax collections on flower orders forwarded to out-of-state florists who delivered flowers to out-of-state recipients. The Florida Supreme Court disagreed in a May 2016 decision.
The company’s attorneys urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case and to revisit its Quill Corp. v. North Dakota physical presence standard that determines when states can impose sales tax obligations on businesses—a standard that’s under nationwide scrutiny as states seek to capture sales tax from the growing electronic commerce market. Although the company had a physical presence in Florida, it argued the disputed transactions had no substantial connection there.
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