Wyoming has enacted legislation requiring marketplace facilitators (e.g. Amazon, eBay, etc.) to collect Wyoming sales tax, effective July 1, 2019. Marketplace facilitators are required to collect and remit sales tax on all sales that the marketplace facilitator makes on its own behalf as well as sales that the facilitator facilitates on behalf of all marketplace sellers to customers in Wyoming, regardless of whether the marketplace seller has a sales tax permit or otherwise would have been required to collect sales tax if the sale had not been facilitated by the marketplace facilitator.
If a marketplace facilitator fails to collect or remit Wyoming sales tax due to incorrect or insufficient information provided by a marketplace seller, the facilitator will be relieved of liability provided that the relief does not exceed 5% of the total sales tax due from sales made or facilitated in Wyoming by the facilitator. If a facilitator is relieved of liability, the marketplace seller or the purchaser will be liable for any amount of uncollected, unpaid or unremitted tax due. Relief will not be granted for sales made by a marketplace seller who is affiliated with the marketplace facilitator. Entities are affiliated if one entity owns more than 5% of the other entity, or both entities are subject to the control of a common entity that owns more than 5% of each of the entities.
Per the legislation, the Wyoming Department of Revenue (DOR) can only audit the marketplace facilitator for sales made by marketplace sellers but facilitated by the marketplace facilitator. The DOR shall not audit marketplace sellers except to the extent the marketplace facilitator seeks relief under the previous paragraph.
The legislation states that a class action lawsuit shall not be maintained against a marketplace facilitator related to an overpayment of sales or use tax collected by the marketplace facilitator, regardless of whether the action is characterized as a tax refund claim.
Wyoming’s marketplace nexus legislation is proactive, meaning that marketplace facilitators will not be required to collect or remit sales tax as provided by this legislation on any sale made prior to the effective date of July 1, 2019. No word from any of the marketplace facilitators on when they will update their sites to start collecting the sales tax. (H.B. 69, Laws 2019, effective July 1, 2019)