A family-owned jewelry and craft supply wholesaler in Arizona has had enough of Louisiana’s approach to sales tax.
Halstead Beard is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that challenges Louisiana’s sales tax structure, arguing it places an unconstitutional burden on doing business in the state. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), the Pelican Institute and the Goldwater Institute have joined Halstead Beard in the legal action filed against Louisiana Secretary of Revenue Kimberly Lewis.
"Louisiana makes it extremely hard to do business in the state because of the countless hours and dollars it takes to ensure accurate compliance with all of the taxing jurisdictions," Brad Scott, Halstead's director of finance, said in a NTUF release.
A family-owned jewelry and craft supply wholesaler in Arizona has had enough of the nightmare Louisiana’s approach to sales tax creates.
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Halstead Bead sells its products online to customers throughout the United States but avoids Louisiana because of the state’s antiquated sales tax system of collecting taxes on a parish-by-parish basis.
"We don't have the tools; we don't have the resources, but we still have outrageous compliance demands," Scott said. "It's overwhelming, and both businesses and consumers alike suffer because of the fragmented nature of the Louisiana sales tax collection system."
The lawsuit was filed after voters in the 2021 general election rejected the appointment of a commission to review sales tax policy though a spokesman for NTUF insisted it wasn’t a factor.
Kevin Glass, vice president of Communications for NTUF, said even if Amendment 1 would have passed there was no guarantee of change. "Our lawsuit argues that the current system is unconstitutional, and unfortunately, Saturday's vote merely emphasizes that judicial relief is the only hope to fix Louisiana's arbitrary and fragmented tax collection regime,” Glass told The Record in an email.
Halstead Bead estimates that the cost to comply with Louisiana’s current sales tax system is $2.28 for every $1 they collect. According to the lawsuit, over the past three years, it has spent 7,700 hours and $297,000 on sales tax compliance.
“Louisiana’s overly complex sales tax collection process places an undue burden on small businesses and is in direct conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 Wayfair decision. To be fair to small business owners like the Halstead family and to provide more options for consumers, Louisiana needs to streamline their sales tax collection process to make it easier to do business in the state,” Sarah Harbison, general counsel for the Pelican Center for Justice, said in its release.