Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/271848 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10204
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
What is the effect of e-commerce on the geographic distribution of local sales tax revenues? Using COVID-19 as a shock to online shopping and hand-collected high-frequency data on local sales tax revenue, we document an important shift in the state and local public finance landscape. As e-commerce increases, a destination basis for remote sales taxes results in higher growth in local sales tax collections in smaller, generally more rural jurisdictions. This increase comes at the expense of larger urban retail centers, which previously enjoyed an origin basis for sales tax collections. As households replace in-person commerce with online shopping, sales taxes no longer accrue to urban centers with large concentrations of retail establishments and instead expand the tax base of smaller jurisdictions. State-level reforms that enforce sales compliance generally mitigate the revenue falls in larger jurisdictions and amplify the increases in smaller jurisdictions.
Subjects: 
sales tax
online shopping
e-commerce
COVID-19
tax revenue
JEL: 
H25
H71
L81
R51
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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