Sales tax

Texas maintained its torrid pace of sales tax collections in June with its sixth monthly record in 2018.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and co-sponsors of a recently offered bill want to prevent businesses in their states from being forced to collect sales taxes from e-commerce transactions.

With the need for Congressional action lessened, governors and state legislatures can focus on fine tuning their own laws, officials said.

Thursday's 5-4 ruling involves a 2016 law enacted by South Dakota requiring out-of-state e-commerce retailers to collect sales tax if they have more than 200 transactions annually or $100,000 in sales within the state.

The sales tax increase will bring in an extra $30 million to cover a projected $28 million budget shortfall.

States could gain $8 billion to $33.9 billion in additional annual revenue if the high court rules in favor of South Dakota, while a loss would mean the status quo.

Rvenue soar 10.2% in May compared to a year earlier, accompanied by strong growth in oil and gas income.

Tax administrators will consult with governors and governors, in turn, will consult with their legislatures before responding to any of several possible rulings in the case by the high court, officials said.

Many lawmakers in Congress have deferred to the high court on the issue in the belief that helping state and local governments collect sales tax for e-commerce might be construed as a new tax rather than an enforcement measure.

The justices and attorneys both sides in a case involving South Dakota all appeared to prefer action by Congress to regulate this area of interstate commerce that has been forced on the high court by legislative gridlock.