Greeley seeks to change tax code to confirm remittance from online retailers

GREELEY — The Greeley City Council is looking to formally require major e-commerce sites to pay sales taxes to the city by enshrining it in the city code.

The proposed changes come two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, a case in which online furniture retailer Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) asserted that it wasn’t subject to that state’s sales tax because it didn’t have a physical location there.

The judges disagreed, ruling in a 5-4 decision that any retailer that generates more than $100,000 in receipts or makes 200 individual sales during a 12-month period within a state are subject to that state’s sales tax.

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Greeley is now planning to modify its tax code to position itself within the ruling using language developed by the Colorado Municipal League. Any seller doing e-commerce business in Greeley would be subject to pay local sales tax, including giants like Amazon Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Etsy Inc. (Nasdaq: ETSY), which acts as a marketplace between small sellers of crafts and buyers.

Documents from the city state the plan would have no fiscal impact. It’s unclear if that is because large-scale sellers have already been remitting taxes or because the additional revenue would be negligible. It also isn’t clear if the ordinance would apply to small businesses in the city that operate their own e-commerce sites.

Representatives from the city did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The proposal is on the council’s consent agenda at its Tuesday meeting but is scheduled for a final public hearing and vote on Feb. 2.

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