Law Commons^™

Separate But Taxed: A Rejection Of The Steamlined Sales Tax Project Through A Commerce Clause And Federalist Analysis, Gregory R. Evans

American University Law Review

Sales and use taxes, which are levied by forty-five states, have long been an important source of revenue for state and local governments. The rigid structure of these long-standing taxes, however, has been strained by the rapid evolution of the online economy. As a result, the Multistate Tax Commission (“MTC”) devised a plan, the Streamlined State Sales Tax Project (“STP”), to recapture some of the revenue that state and local governments might otherwise lose as consumer purchases migrate from local retailers to online sellers. This plan, approved reciprocally by the states, but not by Congress, was designed by state legislators …