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Two major issues dominated the conversation around state and local tax in 2019, according to Jamie Yesnowitz and the team at Grant Thornton’s SALT National Tax Office: the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. in June 2018. They’ll both continue to have a major influence in 2020.

“In fact, the top two spots, and four of the top seven spots [for 2019] deal with the states’ response to Wayfair,” said Yesnowitz, a GT principal and SALT practice and National Tax Office leader. This year’s list ranked the top SALT stories of the previous year in order of importance:

1. Rapid post-Wayfair implementation of sales tax nexus. “Wayfair has spurred all but two states to adopt laws establishing sales tax economic nexus provisions for remote sellers, and those two states, Florida and Missouri, have pending legislation for this,” Yesnowitz commented. “But not all state sales tax nexus laws are alike. Remote sellers face plenty of challenges attempting to comply with these laws, where cost and transaction thresholds can vary depending on the state.”