If you are a remote seller selling into Louisiana, but not collecting tax on those sales because your activities are below the filing and remittance threshold, watch your mail! The Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers (the “Remote Sellers Commission”) issued approximately 7,000 notices, dated on or about August 15, 2024, via certified mail around mid-August 2024.

The notices either assess, or provide notice of an intent to assess, estimated state and local sales and use tax on sales to Louisiana customers. The notices of assessment, in many instances, include the tax periods from the Spring of 2021 through the late-Spring or Summer of 2023, and the notices of intent to assess generally begin with the subsequent period in 2023 through the Spring or Summer of 2024. At this time, it is not clear whether two notices were issued to each business or whether certain businesses were only mailed a single notice. With respect to the notices of assessment, our understanding is that the corresponding notices of intent to assess were issued via certified mail in or around December 2023.

Many of the notices appear to estimate an identical amount of tax for each tax period for different remote sellers spread across the country that are engaged in different types of business. The Remote Sellers Commission is not checking to see if taxes have already been collected and remitted by a marketplace facilitator on these sales and so, in those instances, the taxes are duplicative.

In many instances, it appears remote sellers receiving such notices may be unaware that a Remote Sellers Commission account has been created for their business, when the business in fact lacks sufficient nexus with Louisiana and is not responsible for filing sales and use tax returns with the Commission. It is possible a Remote Sellers Commission account was created when the Louisiana Department of Revenue transitioned businesses that were previously registered as Direct Marketers to the Remote Sellers Commission. In other instances, it is possible that the accounts may have been inadvertently created by the business or a business’ third-party compliance vendor, which sometimes resulted in duplicate accounts.

Do not ignore these notices even if you would like to work with the Remote Sellers Commission to resolve the issues. A business that receives a notice of assessment has 60 days to appeal the assessment to the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals (the “BTA”) or the assessment becomes final and collectible. For those notices of assessment dated August 15, for example, the deadline to file a petition with the BTA is October 14, 2024.

Any business that received a notice of intent to assess, should consider filing a protest within 30 days of the date on the notice. If a protest is not filed, a business should expect the Commission to issue a notice of assessment, which will start the 60-day appeal deadline running.

For questions or additional information, please contact: Jaye Calhoun at (504) 293-5936, Willie Kolarik at (225) 382-3441, or Divya Jeswant at (504) 293-5766.