A New York state law enacted last spring[FOOTNOTE 1] was on the minds of many Internet retailers this holiday season. The law imposes obligations on certain online out-of-state (and bricks-and-mortar) companies to collect state and local sales taxes for sales made through New York-based affiliates.
Although New York law has long required consumers to pay sales or use taxes when purchasing goods from out-of-state sellers, the new law switches the onus to remit taxes to the state from the individual purchaser to the out-of-state retailer, who now must register as a New York “vendor” when certain criteria are met. The obvious goal of the switch was to enable New York to capture some of the tax revenue that was otherwise not paid by online consumer purchasers who live in New York.
