Collecting sales tax – and when sales tax needs to be collected – continues to get more complicated.
In a recent decision the Maryland Tax Court concluded that Travelocity, an online seller of hotel room and car reservations – with no cars or rooms it owns in the State of Maryland – was responsible for filing to do business in the State of Maryland and collecting and remitting sales tax to the State of Maryland.
The slippery slope is clear. More and more states are finding more and more ways to find that businesses owe a tax to them. The findings are unfortunate for smaller businesses who may find it is cost prohibitive to keep track of all the sales into various states especially if the transaction amount per state is small.
You can find the case, decided December 18, 2017, here.