NEW ORLEANS - Halstead Bead, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit on Nov. 15 in the Eastern District of Louisiana against Kimberly Lewis as Louisiana Secretary of Revenue and others over taxes on products sold in the state.
Other defendants include Amanda Granier as Sales Tax Collector, Lafourche Parish, Donna Drude as Sales and Use Tax Administrator of Tangipahoa Parish, Jamie Butts as Sales Tax Auditor, Washington Parish, LaFourche Parish and Tangipahoa Parish. The lawsuit alleges violation of the Dormant Commerce Clause under U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8, clause 3 and of the Due Process Clause.
According to the complaint, Halstead Bead is a family-owned business specializing in jewelry-making supplies that it sells to wholesalers and retail customers. Halstead Bead developed eCommerce in the 1990s but has issues selling in Louisiana due to the state’s requirements that each of the state’s 64 parishes collect sales and use taxes, with each parish setting its own tax rates and categories.
The law also requires that out-of-state businesses that sell to Louisiana customers to register and file reports on where each sale is made, the suit says. Halstead Bead claims this makes tax-regulation compliance near impossible to the point of the company having to limit sales.
Halstead Bead, Inc. seeks a judgment declaring Louisiana’s parish-by-parish sales and use tax registration and remitting requirements as unconstitutionally burdensome to interstate commerce. It is represented by Sarah Harbison of New Orleans.
District Court of Eastern Louisiana case number 2:21-cv-02106-JTM-KWR