"... the auction industry will continue its challenge on this particular sales tax issue." - NAA President Scott H. Shuman, CAI.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (June 21, 2018) – The National Auctioneers Association vowed on Thursday to continue its fight for protecting its members, the auction industry, and small business against unfair tax regulation after the United States Supreme Court announced it had vacated and remanded its previous ruling in a 5-4 decision in favor of the plaintiff in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.

"While we are disappointed in the decision of the Supreme Court in this particular case, the auction industry will continue its challenge on this particular sales tax issue," said NAA President Scott H. Shuman, CAI.

Before the case was heard, NAA worked in step with 38 state auctioneer associations to file one of numerous Amicus briefs in support of Wayfair’s position.

Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the opinion, which noted that overturning the Court’s 1992 Quill Corp. v. North Dakota decision is based on a changed commerce landscape.

“The Quill Court did not have before it the present realities of the interstate marketplace, where the Internet’s prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy,” the opinion said. “The expansion of e-commerce has also increased the revenue shortfall faced by States seeking to collect their sales and use taxes…”

With the decision, auction companies that do business in South Dakota and meet the law’s annual threshold of $100,000 or 200 transactions now are tasked with the enormous burden of determining the applicable sales tax, collecting it, and remitting it to the buyer’s local taxing jurisdiction.

The ruling is one that will quickly prove to be the first of many dominos that damage auction companies and small businesses in other states such as Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Washington, where laws with much lower thresholds already have been drafted and are ready for enactment. This doesn’t account for numerous other states that filed briefs in support of South Dakota and are expected to draft their own versions of legislation.

With the ruling, NAA will turn its attention and potential efforts toward educating NAA members on how to continue to work with their national, state and local officials. Also, NAA will help direct its members to information and resources that will help them stay educated on any new sales tax requirements that result from the Court’s decision.

"We will now move our fight to the state legislatures and begin exploring what we can do legislatively on a national basis,” Shuman said. “It is critical that we find a solution so that thousands of small businesses are not saddled with unfair tax regulation."

To read the Court’s full opinion, visit: supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf. You can also visit auctioneers.org/auction-tax for other related information.