Associated Industries of Missouri v. Lohman (1993)
- Docket
- 93-397
- Decided
- 1993-01-01
Summary
Question: Does Missouri's use tax violate the Commerce Clause by discriminating against interstate commerce in those localities where the use tax exceeds the local sales tax? Conclusion: Yes. The Court held that the use tax was discriminatory in those localities where it exceeded the local sales tax. Such discrepancies, between certain localities' sales taxes and the state use tax, prevented the latter tax from being a valid "compensatory" tax, since it obviously did not impose a "substantially similar" burden on the interstate and intrastate commerce of such localities. The Court added that in those localities where the use tax did not exceed the local sales tax, no discriminatory treatment resulted and so the use tax's application would not be struck down in its entirety. Instead, the Court remanded the case back to Missouri for a decision on how to best correct certain of its localities' existing tax discrepancies.