The Supreme Court has ruled in two separate cases that states may only levy sales taxes on businesses physically within their borders. However, with the growth of online and catalog sales, states are passing laws to recapture that lost revenue.

Some states have implemented new regulations over the past few years that any local “affiliate,” be it a sales office or distribution center, counts as an in-state business. These are sometimes known as “Amazon taxes.” More recently, states have passed laws that count “economic activity” as enough cause to levy a sales tax. In January, Alabama enacted a regulation that required out-of-state businesses with more than $250,000 in sales within the state to collect sales taxes. Bills with similar regulations have already been introduced in 12 other states.

These measures have drawn opposition from businesses and organizations like the American Catalog Mailers Association and the True Simplification of Taxation (TruST) coalition.

Click here to read more on this trend and how legislators and businesses are navigating it.