After Wayfair: What Are State Use Taxes Worth?
24 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2019
Date Written: May 31, 2019
Abstract
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that states may require sellers without a physical presence to collect use taxes has generated much enthusiasm and dread among observers. We present new data on revenues from the state use tax between 2010 and 2017. We also present a unique monthly series of remote vendor use tax collections for Indiana before and after the Wayfair ruling and use the synthetic control method to derive a treatment effect of the policy change. While remote vendor registrations have tripled, we find there has been relatively modest impact on state revenue.
Keywords: sales and use tax, e-commerce, nexus
JEL Classification: H27, H71
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation