Amazon was granted an exception by Louisiana lawmakers. 



Some of you may know the following about Louisiana’s sales tax collection system: The rest of the country, all 49 states, as I understand, collect sales taxes at one point of contact, and the state then apportions distributions to its counties and/or localities. 

This does not happen in Louisiana.

In Louisiana’s stupid case, each parish has its own collections infrastructure, headed up by Sheriffs. If you sell nothing in Sabine Parish, you should not have to submit a sales tax return in Sabine Parish. But in our excellent system, if you sell one thing to a parish in Louisiana, you may have to file quarterly or monthly returns in that parish, basically forever, whether you sell another thing there or not. Imagine it. Someone buys a t-shirt in a Louisiana parish, and now you have to file sales tax returns in that parish until your company dissolves.

This silly construct possibly works OK for brick-and-mortar. You open your physical location, transact there, and submit tax returns there. 

But if you have a web store…

In 2018 during the holiday season, Swamp Dragon sold into over 30-something parishes. This means we have to file a return in each parish where someone bought from our web store. FOREVER. Whether we transact there ever again or not. Can you imagine? People don’t buy gifts year round like they do for Christmas, but we’ll have to manage zero sales tax returns all year long, even without revenue from those parishes.

And each parish has its own rules. Some require monthly filing, some quarterly, and sales tax rates can change by zip code. Imagine trying to keep track of all that. If we miss a filing, we get a letter. We can sell nothing, and owe no taxes. The parish spends money and resources on paper, stamps, manpower, etc. for zero dollar filings. A small company with a web store can sell one thing in some Louisiana parish and have to file returns there for the rest of eternity, having never sold another thing there but that one time.



In Swamp Dragon’s case, I suspended normal operations. The company is still active, and I still do a great deal of work for it. I am working to build a new team and finances, but we’re not actively advertising or selling. Thus, the company has no revenue, no employees, and I operate it as essentially a pre-revenue startup. But every month or every quarter, my one-man operation is required to fill out tens of tax filings for the rest of Swamp Dragon’s life, even if I convert the company to a consultancy that sells no physical product.



Imagine starting a company with no money and no employees, and right out of the gate, you have to file over 30 sales tax returns every month or every quarter. 

If the world were brick-and-mortar, maybe… maybe Louisiana’s system functions. As it stands, small web-based businesses have very little chance of being in compliance with Louisiana’s sales tax system.

Startups lacking the manpower to deal with this bullshit simply need to cross state lines, and it all gets sooo much better. Awesome. But it gets better!

Amazon was granted an exception by Louisiana lawmakers. They are more important than Louisiana’s citizens to Louisiana’s law makers. If the system worked, no exceptions would be required. This has got to stop.

Seriously, contact your legislator, senator, or buddy at the state capitol, and tell them to replace this moronic suppression of commerce.

Find your legislator here: https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_FullInfo

Find your senator here: https://senate.la.gov/Senators_FullInfo

They know about it. They just need to fix it. Now.

Thanks, Louisiana.