If you indulged in a Cyber Monday shopping spree don’t forget that you may owe sales taxes back to the state.
A set of state laws passed in 2011 require on-line retail businesses with locations in South Dakota to collect sales taxes-- but for on-line only businesses the sales tax is supposed to be submitted by the buyer.
Here is a link to the State Department of Revenue’s page.
The law laid out in 2011 attempts to close the sales tax loophole enjoyed by on-line only businesses that operate out of state. Shawn Lyons with the South Dakota Retailers Association says on-line only businesses are supposed to give a notice on how to pay sales tax when a purchase is made.
“They should have a pop-up window that when you go through the check-out process that says if you’re from South Dakota you owe sales and use taxes to the state and here’s the link to the state department of revenue,” says Lyons.
Lyons says e-commerce is here to stay, and it’s also a very important part of many local South Dakota Businesses. But he adds that web only retailers should not have a different set of rules than others. Lyons says Congress is currently considering two major bills aimed at main street sales tax fairness to level the playing field.