Walmart Use Tax Constitutional Claim Favored by High Court Judge

A Missouri Supreme Court judge seemed receptive to an argument from a Walmart Inc. subsidiary that it isn’t liable for about $8 million in use tax on property it purchased, modified, and resold to Walmart stores because it’s unconstitutional.

Judge W. Brent Powell repeatedly questioned the state’s counsel, Deputy Solicitor General Samuel Freedlund, on Walmart Starco LLC’s allegation that discrepancies between different resale exemptions for the state’s use and sales taxes discriminated against interstate commerce. The dispute centers around whether the company must pay state use tax for information technology equipment that it bought and resold to stores out of ...