Online Florist Challenges State Tax Collectors
November 5th, 2015 by Mike Vasilinda
Who should pay the sales tax when you order Flowers online for delivery in another state…the buyer, the recipient, or no one? That’s a question the state Supreme Court is wrestling with tonight, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us the decision could have implications for all internet transactions.
When the first sales taxes started appearing in the 1930’s…Florists pushed lawmakers to decide who should pay. Legislatures settled on the Florist who sells the flowers…but now an online retailer is taking the question to the state Supreme Court. Attorney Michael Sloan represents the Florist.
“The flowers at issue never enter Florida. They’re not grown in Florida. They’re not stored in Florida. And they’re not delivered in Florida” Sloan told Justices.
“But the interest they say is not the flowers, it’s the sale” Asked Justice Ricky Polston.
A trial court sided with the state saying the tax is due when the flowers are sold. An appeals court ruled the law unconstitutional. The State Department of Revenue, through Assistant Attorney General Allen Winsor, says to collect the tax any time but when they are ordered would not make sense.
“Everything this business does, it does in Florida. Every transaction it participates in, it does in Florida” says Winsor.
What the online retailer was arguing is that whomever gets the flowers should pay the tax. That’s exactly opposite of what happens today. The state told justices if they buy the florists argument, who pays the sales taxes could get complicated.
“If you say we’ll put the burden on the recipient, now all of a sudden, then grandmother has to go pay tax on the flowers she just received.. There’s plenty of policy reasons to do it this way” said Winsor.
Justices were animated, asking dozens of questions.
Through all those questions, none appear to be buying the florists arguments. We tried to talk with the Florists attorney afterward, but he wouldn’t stop to talk.
“You don’t think it went well, I take it?” we asked. The response: “I have no comment.”
At state for the online retailer is more than a hundred thousand in back taxes. A ruling for the florist, though, could send the state tax code into chaos.
The court could rule at any time, although it generally takes at least several months to issue ruling.
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