UPDATE: U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Colorado Use Tax Reporting Case

On Dec. 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ended almost five years of litigation over Colorado’s use tax reporting law by declining to review the Tenth Circuit’s opinion.

On Dec. 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Tenth Circuit’s opinion in Direct Marketing Ass’n v. Brohl, thus ending almost five years of litigation over Colorado’s use tax reporting law that was enacted in 2010.

As we reported in our March 2016 SALT Newsletter, the Tenth Circuit ruled that Colorado’s use tax reporting law is constitutional. That law, among other things, requires retailers without a physical presence in Colorado which have at least $100,000 in annual gross sales to Colorado customers to report annually to the Colorado Department of Revenue a list of the retailer’s Colorado customers, their addresses and the total amount spent on purchases for the year.

Now that the Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal, we expect Colorado to begin enforcing these obligations. Remote sellers need to assess their compliance in Colorado and in other states that have enacted similar laws, such as Oklahoma, Vermont and Louisiana (some of these state laws are not effective until 2017). We will provide more detail concerning these laws in the January 2017 issue of the Aprio SALT Newsletter.

This article was featured in the November/December 2016 SALT Newsletter. To view the newsletter, click here.

Any tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or under any state or local tax law or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding the matter.