The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a customer’s purchase to a state where the business didn’t have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, the business didn’t have to collect sales tax for the state. Customers were generally responsible for paying the sales tax to the state themselves if they weren’t charged it, but most didn’t realize they owed it and few paid.
法院推翻的案件说，如果一家企业将客户购买的货物运送到一个没有仓库或办公室等实体存在的企业所在的州，那么该企业就不必为该州征收销售税。一般来说，如果不征收销售税的话，消费者都要自己向州政府缴纳销售税，但大多数人没有意识到自己欠了税，所以很少有人缴纳。
The Supreme Court’s opinion Thursday overruled a pair of decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collect sales tax on certain online purchases.
最高法院星期四的意见驳回了两项已有数十年历史的判决，各州说，这两项判决每年给他们造成数十亿美元的收入损失。这两项判决使得各州对某些网上购物征收销售税变得更加困难。
States will be able to force more people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a Supreme Court decision Thursday that will leave shoppers with lighter wallets but is a big financial win for states.
根据最高法院星期四的一项裁决，各州在网上购物时将能够迫使更多的人缴纳销售税，这将使购物者的钱包变得更轻，但对各州来说，这是一个巨大的财政胜利。
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the previous decisions were flawed. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States,” he wrote in an opinion joined by four other justices. Kennedy wrote that the rule “limited states’ ability to seek long-term prosperity and has prevented market participants from competing on an even playing field.”
安东尼·肯尼迪法官写道，先前的判决有缺陷。他在一份由其他四位法官共同撰写的意见书中写道：“每年，实体存在规则都会进一步脱离经济现实，给各州带来巨大的收入损失。”。肯尼迪写道，这一规定“限制了各州寻求长期繁荣的能力，并阻止了市场参与者在公平竞争的环境中竞争。”
Until now, many sellers that have a physical presence in only a single state or a few states have been able to avoid charging sales taxes when they ship to addresses outside those states. Sellers that use eBay and Etsy, which provide platforms for smaller sellers, also haven’t been collecting sales tax nationwide. Under the ruling Thursday, states can pass laws requiring out-of-state sellers to collect the state’s sales tax from customers and send it to the state.
到目前为止，许多只在一个州或几个州有实体的卖家在运送到这些州以外的地址时能够避免收取销售税。使用eBay和Etsy的小卖家也没有在全国范围内征收销售税。根据周四的裁决，各州可以通过法律，要求州外的卖家向客户收取州内的销售税，并将其送到州内。
The ruling is a victory for big chains with a presence in many states, since they usually collect sales tax on online purchases already. Now, rivals will be charging sales tax where they hadn’t before. Big chains have been collecting sales tax nationwide because they typically have physical stores in whatever state a purchase is being shipped to. Amazon. com, with its network of warehouses, also collects sales tax in every state that charges it, though third-party sellers who use the site don’t have to.
这项裁决是在许多州都有业务的大型连锁店的胜利，因为它们通常已经对网购征收了销售税。现在，竞争对手将在以前没有的地方征收销售税。大型连锁店一直在全国范围内征收销售税，因为他们通常在购买商品的目的地州都有实体店。拥有仓库网络的亚马逊也在每个收费州征收销售税，不过使用该网站的第三方卖家不必这样做。
Retail trade groups praised the ruling, saying it levels the playing field for local and online businesses. The losers, said retail analyst Neil Saunders, are online-only retailers, especially smaller ones. Those retailers may face headaches complying with various state sales tax laws. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council advocacy group said in a statement, “Small businesses and internet entrepreneurs are not well served at all by this decision.”
零售贸易集团对这一裁决表示赞赏，称这为本地和在线企业提供了公平的竞争环境。零售业分析师尼尔•桑德斯（Neil Saunders）表示，失败者是仅在线零售商，尤其是规模较小的零售商。这些零售商可能会面临遵守各州销售税法的麻烦。小企业和创业理事会的倡导组织在一份声明中说，“这一决定使得小企业和互联网企业家根本没有得到很好的服务。”
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