Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf
Page Number: 37

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

5 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

thority,  but  Businesses  Are  Likely  to  Experience  Compli-
ance  Costs  5  (GAO–18–114,  Nov.  2017)  (Sales  Taxes  Re-
port)).  But  evidence  in  the  same  GAO  report  indicates 
that  the  pendulum  is  swinging  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and has been for some time.  States and local governments 
are already able to collect approximately 80 percent of the 
tax revenue that would be available if there were no phys-
ical-presence rule.  See Sales Taxes Report 8.  Among the
top  100  Internet  retailers  that  rate  is  between  87  and  96 
percent.  See  id.,  at  41.  Some  companies,  including  the 
online  behemoth  Amazon,*  now  voluntarily  collect  and 
remit  sales  tax  in  every  State  that  assesses  one—even 
those in which they have no physical presence.  See id., at 
10.  To  the  extent  the  physical-presence  rule  is  harming
States, the harm is apparently receding with time. 

The  Court  rests  its  decision  to  overrule  Bellas  Hess  on 
the “present realities of the interstate marketplace.”  Ante, 
at  18.  As  the  Court  puts  it,  allowing  remote  sellers  to 
escape remitting a lawful tax is “unfair and unjust.”  Ante, 
at  16.  “[U]nfair  and  unjust  to  . . .  competitors  . . .  who
must remit the tax; to the consumers who pay the tax; and
to the States that seek fair enforcement of the sales tax.” 
Ante,  at  16.  But  “the  present  realities  of  the  interstate
marketplace” include the possibility that the  marketplace
itself  could  be  affected  by  abandoning  the  physical-
presence rule.  The Court’s focus on unfairness and injus-
tice  does  not  appear  to  embrace  consideration  of  that 
current public policy concern. 

The  Court,  for  example,  breezily  disregards  the  costs 
that its decision will impose on retailers.  Correctly calcu-
lating  and  remitting  sales  taxes  on  all  e-commerce  sales 

—————— 

* C.  Isidore,  Amazon  To  Start  Collecting  State  Sales  Taxes  Every-
where  (Mar.  29,  2017),  CNN  Tech,  http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/29/
technology/amazon-sales-tax/index.html  (all  Internet  materials  as  last
visited June 19, 2018).