The Florida Senate

212.0596  Taxation of mail order sales.--

(1)  For purposes of this chapter, a "mail order sale" is a sale of tangible personal property, ordered by mail or other means of communication, from a dealer who receives the order in another state of the United States, or in a commonwealth, territory, or other area under the jurisdiction of the United States, and transports the property or causes the property to be transported, whether or not by mail, from any jurisdiction of the United States, including this state, to a person in this state, including the person who ordered the property.

(2)  Every dealer as defined in s. 212.06(2)(c) who makes a mail order sale is subject to the power of this state to levy and collect the tax imposed by this chapter when:

(a)  The dealer is a corporation doing business under the laws of this state or a person domiciled in, a resident of, or a citizen of, this state;

(b)  The dealer maintains retail establishments or offices in this state, whether the mail order sales thus subject to taxation by this state result from or are related in any other way to the activities of such establishments or offices;

(c)  The dealer has agents in this state who solicit business or transact business on behalf of the dealer, whether the mail order sales thus subject to taxation by this state result from or are related in any other way to such solicitation or transaction of business, except that a printer who mails or delivers for an out-of-state print purchaser material the printer printed for it shall not be deemed to be the print purchaser's agent for purposes of this paragraph;

(d)  The property was delivered in this state in fulfillment of a sales contract that was entered into in this state, in accordance with applicable conflict of laws rules, when a person in this state accepted an offer by ordering the property;

(e)  The dealer, by purposefully or systematically exploiting the market provided by this state by any media-assisted, media-facilitated, or media-solicited means, including, but not limited to, direct mail advertising, unsolicited distribution of catalogs, computer-assisted shopping, television, radio, or other electronic media, or magazine or newspaper advertisements or other media, creates nexus with this state;

(f)  Through compact or reciprocity with another jurisdiction of the United States, that jurisdiction uses its taxing power and its jurisdiction over the retailer in support of this state's taxing power;

(g)  The dealer consents, expressly or by implication, to the imposition of the tax imposed by this chapter;

(h)  The dealer is subject to service of process under s. 48.181;

(i)  The dealer's mail order sales are subject to the power of this state to tax sales or to require the dealer to collect use taxes under a statute or statutes of the United States;

(j)  The dealer owns real property or tangible personal property that is physically in this state, except that a dealer whose only property (including property owned by an affiliate) in this state is located at the premises of a printer with which the vendor has contracted for printing, and is either a final printed product, or property which becomes a part of the final printed product, or property from which the printed product is produced, is not deemed to own such property for purposes of this paragraph;

(k)  The dealer, while not having nexus with this state on any of the bases described in paragraphs (a)-(j) or paragraph (l), is a corporation that is a member of an affiliated group of corporations, as defined in s. 1504(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, whose members are includable under s. 1504(b) of the Internal Revenue Code and whose members are eligible to file a consolidated tax return for federal corporate income tax purposes and any parent or subsidiary corporation in the affiliated group has nexus with this state on one or more of the bases described in paragraphs (a)-(j) or paragraph (l); or

(l)  The dealer or the dealer's activities have sufficient connection with or relationship to this state or its residents of some type other than those described in paragraphs (a)-(k) to create nexus empowering this state to tax its mail order sales or to require the dealer to collect sales tax or accrue use tax.

(3)  Every dealer engaged in the business of making mail order sales is subject to the requirements of this chapter for cooperation of dealers in collection of taxes and in administration of this chapter, except that no fee shall be imposed upon such dealer for carrying out any required activity.

(4)  The department shall, with the consent of another jurisdiction of the United States whose cooperation is needed, enforce this chapter in that jurisdiction, either directly or, at the option of that jurisdiction, through its officers or employees.

(5)  The tax required under this section to be collected and any amount unreturned to a purchaser that is not tax but was collected from the purchaser under the representation that it was tax constitute funds of the State of Florida from the moment of collection.

(6)  Notwithstanding other provisions of law, a dealer who makes a mail order sale in this state is exempt from collecting and remitting any local option surtax on the sale, unless the dealer is located in a county that imposes a surtax within the meaning of s. 212.054(3)(a), the order is placed through the dealer's location in such county, and the property purchased is delivered into such county or into another county in this state that levies the surtax, in which case the provisions of s. 212.054(3)(a) are applicable.

(7)  The department may establish by rule procedures for collecting the use tax from unregistered persons who but for their mail order purchases would not be required to remit sales or use tax directly to the department. The procedures may provide for waiver of registration and registration fees, provisions for irregular remittance of tax, elimination of the collection allowance, and nonapplication of local option surtaxes.

History.--s. 3, ch. 87-402; s. 84, ch. 90-132; s. 30, ch. 91-112; s. 1, ch. 92-207; s. 1112, ch. 95-147; s. 34, ch. 95-280; s. 3, ch. 97-99.