Now, first, remember, we have already said this about North Carolina’s attempts to get access to Amazon’s sales records from sales to customers in the Tar Heel state:
“Yeah, that’s right, forget the free speech issues, the privacy red herrings. Forget about the proper scope of a sales tax audit curiously being performed on a retailer who, by law, has no obligation to collect sales tax. Forget about all the writers and commenters who took the bait. Forget it all because this battle is about revenues and it is about who is required to collect those revenues for the state of NC.”
Well, the American Civil Liberties Union has decided that, sales tax compliance issues aside, this request from North Carolina infringes on privacy rights of North Carolinians. We’ll leave the penumbras and emanations to the Constitutional lawyers and law professors. But how about the new lawsuit and sales tax compliance?
Well, what we said still stands: the North Carolina lawsuit is but a battle waged in the context of a much broader war between internet vendors and the states. And the ACLU lawsuit only tends to further deflect the public’s attention from the core issue here, which is sales and use tax collections … however … whenever sales tax compliance rubs up against heavy hitters in the Constitutional rights bar, we just have to have a peek.
Here is the COMPLAINT IN INTERVENTION FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF, or in plain speech, the lawsuit. Some interesting tidbits (remember, the ACLU hates this law because of privacy concerns, not because of any particular sales tax compliance issue):
How the ACLU frames the issue. In a word, privacy.:
“This case involves the constitutional rights of thousands of individual Amazon
customers to read books, watch films, and buy other items without the government learning about their purchasing decisions and expressive activities”
The scope of the relief sought. The ACLU wants an end to these requests forever:
“This is not the first time that DOR has issued a broad information request to an
out-of-state website or other business that encompasses this extremely personal and sensitive information. According to DOR, it is also not the last time that such information requests will be issued. Intervenors therefore also seek to have the Court declare DOR’s policy and practice of issuing information requests encompassing their expressive and private information to be unconstitutional and to enjoin DOR from issuing such overbroad and constitutionally impermissible information requests in the future.”
And finally, why is privacy the big issue here? According to the ACLU, the nature of the books purchased triggers the privacy concerns:
“Many of the items available for purchase on Amazon may be viewed by some as
being controversial or offensive. For example, if one so desires, one can purchase through Amazon pro-choice or pro-life clothing, books supporting and criticizing President Obama, feminist or anti-feminist literature, Bibles or anti-Bible writings, anti-gun or pro-gun books and accessories, and Confederate flags or Rainbow Coalition flags, just to name a few.”
The take away? The sales tax compliance issues surrounding nexus are a hotbed of talk amongst vendors and sales tax pros. The Constitutional issues raised by the strategies of the states to encourage collection are becoming a hot topic for a broader audience.
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