The Louisiana Supreme Court has agreed to review an appellate court ruling that Walmart.com owes local sales taxes on its third-party sales.
The court on May 6 granted Walmart.com USA LLC’s challenge to the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision in Normand v. Wal-Mart.com USA LLC, that the company was responsible for collecting a locality's sales tax because it was the dealer on sales by third-party retailers in its marketplace program. Associate Justice Greg Guidry recused himself from the case; he was nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in January.
Jefferson Parish audited Walmart.com for 2009 through 2015 and sought unpaid sales taxes on third-party marketplace sales made through the company, although the online seller argued that it was not obligated to collect the tax because it was not the retail seller of the items.
Both the trial court and later the court of appeal agreed with the parish, with the trial court finding that Walmart.com owed the parish approximately $140,000 in uncollected taxes.
When Walmart.com asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to hear the case, Jefferson Parish argued that the company had not timely filed its February 14 writ application, claiming that the case was filed as a summary proceeding and thus Walmart.com was required to file its application within 30 days after the original judgment of the appeal court — by January 26.
But Walmart.com contended that the case was never conducted as a summary proceeding and that it had timely filed its application for writ of certiorari within 30 days after its application for rehearing was denied by the appellate court.
The Council On State Taxation, the Tax Executives Institute, the Institute for Professionals in Taxation, and other organizations filed amicus briefs in support of Walmart.com’s writ application.