Law Commons^™

The Law Of Sales Taxes In A Cyberspace Economy, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on three questions of state sales’ tax:

(1) What is the basic structure of states’ sales tax laws and how do these laws apply to electronic commerce?

(2) What are the existing federal constitutional restraints on the states’ power to impose sales taxes and how do those restraints limit the states’ ability to apply their laws to electronic commerce?

(3) What are the restraints on Congress – to whom this commission’s recommendations will be directed – in legislating to limit or expand state taxing power, or otherwise enact rules governing taxation of electronic commerce?

Suspect Linkage: The Interplay Of State Taxing And Spending Measures In The Application Of Constitutional Antidiscrimination Rules, Dan T. Coenen, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article examines an important and recurring question that courts frequently resolve, but rarely analyze: whether taxing and spending measures should be viewed together when a state imposes a nondiscriminatory tax but also affords relief to some taxpayers through government spending. The answer to this question will often determine whether the state's actions violate constitutional strictures against discriminatory taxation. The taxing measure and the spending measure will generally pass muster if viewed in isolation. After all, courts rarely invalidate nondiscriminatory taxing measures on constitutional grounds. And true government spending measures, if considered alone, plainly fall outside the reach of constitutional …