Massachusetts Budget Includes Economic Nexus and Marketplace Liability Rules

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently signed the 2020 Fiscal Year Budget which includes statutory language establishing a new economic nexus rule effective October 1, 2019. This new law replaces their existing “cookie nexus” standard with requirements emblematic of the national trend subsequent to the Wayfair Supreme Court decision. Under the old rules, a seller would be obligated to collect Massachusetts tax if they deposit cookies (bits of software that facilitate user experience on a website) on the devices of Massachusetts residents and make more than 100 transaction or $500,000 in revenue from Massachusetts customers. Under the new rule, a tax collection and remittance obligation is created if a seller has $100,000 or more in sales in Massachusetts. In addition to economic nexus, the budget will also implement a marketplace liability rule which requires “marketplace facilitators” and “remote marketplace facilitators” with sales exceeding $100,000 to report, collect and remit on all such sales, whether such sales are direct sales by the marketplace facilitator or sales facilitated for a marketplace seller.