A bill that could lead to North Dakota collecting sales tax from Internet retailers is being temporarily held up in the House.
It had earlier passed the state Senate.
The bill’s sponsor -- Sen. Dwight Cook (R-Mandan) said it’s meant to create a situation where a case could again go to the US Supreme Court. In an earlier case, called “Quill versus North Dakota,” the Court ruled the state could not collect sales taxes from Internet sellers.
But House Finance and Taxation Committee chairman Craig Headland (R-Montpelier) said his committee was told a judge has thrown out a similar law in South Dakota, and it’s likely that case could get to the Supreme Court.
"The leader (House Majority Leader Al Carlson) asked me if I could meet with the Tax Department to see if we could come up with a way to incent those out of state businesses to start remitting sales taxes," Headland said. "We're holding off on sending it to the floor while we see if we can brainstorm a little bit."
The bill says if an Internet retailer has more than 200 transactions with North Dakota customers, or makes at least $100,000 worth of sales in a year, that retailer needs to remit sales taxes.