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How will the SCOTUS decision on online sales tax affect Texas? It’s unclear.

This Supreme Court decision on online sales tax could possibly bring in additional revenue for the state of Texas -- anywhere from the hundreds of millions to a billion dollars.

It was a big decision from the United States Supreme Court Thursday. In a 5-4 ruling, the court opened the door for states to collect sales tax for online sales.

"It remains for our office to determine how exactly we are going to implement the details that the case contemplates in Texas,” said Chris Bryan with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

The office said this could possibly bring in additional revenue for the state -- anywhere from the hundreds of millions to a billion dollars.

"Because Texas is a pretty big state, has the 10th largest economy in the world and a lot of that economy from a retail sales point has moved online in the last couple of decades, it could potentially represent a significant amount of money,” said Bryan.

Right now if you live in Texas, and buy something from an online store based in another state, that business doesn't have to charge you sales tax.

But if the business has a physical presence in Texas, even a warehouse, they do charge you.

Now, this ruling removes the need for a physical location.

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Texas could collect that sales tax from the online business, even if they don't have a physical presence.

Now with this ruling, Texas could collect sales tax on that online purchase.

On the flip side, if you're a business here in Texas, and someone from out of state buys from you online, you may now have to charge the customer sales tax based on where they live.

"The impact to consumers and businesses -- not yet known -- but I think it will have an impact both on the consumers who are purchasing online and as well as the businesses who are operating online,” said Bryan.

Bryan said they'll now look at the ruling, and figure out how it applies to Texas.

"For Texans, things are not going to change overnight, this is going to be a process by which we sort of examine this case, examine how this may apply in Texas, and then come up with potential legislation, or rule making, that makes that implementation effective and judicious,” said Byan.

Michael Sury with the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Finance Department said this ruling evens the playing field among merchants, but could create high costs for small businesses as they comply with different tax laws from all over the country.

He also said consumers could see higher prices at online retailers.

“Some of the major reasons why people shop online include: Price competition, the ability to comparison shop, reference information and convenience. Not surprisingly, a Pew research poll conducted in 2016 found that price was among the most important factors for consumers in determining whether to shop online. What was interesting, though, was the relative unimportance of convenience. All things being equal, consumers seem to still prefer going to a store to 'touch and feel' the products they are looking to buy. As net prices now increase, the relative advantage that online retailers provide will start to narrow,” said Sury.

Bryan said they will look at this over the next several months, and decide if it's something they can apply, or if it requires legislation from our state lawmakers.

If that's the case, the next legislative session begins at the start of next year.

"I don't want folks to think that overnight things are going to change on a lot of their shopping online, this is going to be something we're going to have to look at over time, so we will keep folks apprise as to how this will impact Texas shoppers and Texas retailers,” said Bryan.

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