Internet tax advances

Louisiana taxpayers may have to pay state and local taxes on online purchases at the end of the year if a bill by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, becomes law.  It took its first significant step toward that end Monday.  
House Bill 1121, approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and passed on to the full house, would require online retailers which sell more than $50,000 in goods or services to report purchases by Louisiana residents to the Louisiana Department of Revenue during tax season.  
Online buyers would be warned that they may be subject to Louisiana state and local sales taxes prior to the purchase. Leger testified to the committee that similar legislation in Colorado has been upheld by the Federal 10th Circuit Court.  
Following Leger’s bill, Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, presented House Bill 950 to reduce a research and development tax credit from 40 percent to 30 percent of in-state research expenses for companies with less than 50 employees.
The bill also proposes to cap the total amount of the small-business credit to $5 million a year.
The committee moved Foil’s bill to the House Appropriations Committee because of its potential fiscal impact.  The fiscal note attached to the measure restoring some of the state’s annual research and development tax credit costs which the Legislature reduced in 2015.