The businesses most hurt from the U.S. Supreme Court’s internet tax ruling aren’t the big online retailers — instead, the losers will likely be the millions of small-business owners who sell on marketplaces such as Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported. The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a longstanding precedent that states can only require retailers to collect sales tax when they have a physical presence there. The old rule enabled online commerce to boom and helped drive an explosion of small businesses that sell their wares across online platforms. But the new decision means that those millions of small businesses may now need to collect and remit sales taxes in the 45 states that have them. That could be an expensive and time-consuming task, especially if new rules differ between states.
President Donald Trump’s plans to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement this year looked unattainable yesterday after negotiators appeared too far apart to strike a deal before a deadline this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) had set this Thursday as an informal deadline if the administration were to push a pact through the Republican-controlled Congress before a new slate of lawmakers arrives in Washington, D.C., next year, possibly led by Democrats. The U.S. and Mexican governments had hoped to reach at least the general terms of an agreement this week to allow enough time for legislative approval before year’s end. Negotiators had sought to avoid complications stemming from July 1 presidential and congressional elections in Mexico and U.S. congressional midterm elections in November. Canada, by contrast, faces little pressure to rush.