The St. Louis County Council on Tuesday dropped a plan to put an online sales tax on the ballot this spring.
The proposed ballot initiative would have added a local use tax on purchases from Amazon, Walmart.com and other online out-of-state retailers.
The rate for the online tax would have matched what someone pays for local sales taxes in the county. St. Louis County levies a sales tax of around 3.5%, but several municipalities and jurisdictions in the county place additional taxes on purchases.
The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, D-Maplewood, was up for final approval at the afternoon meeting. Instead, Clancy requested to withdraw the use tax from the council’s consideration.
After talking to community members and stakeholders, Clancy said, she had “come to the conclusion that April is not the right time for this to move forward.”
St. Louis County voters defeated a similar online sales tax measure two years ago.
“Voters have already rejected the tax hike,” county resident Tom Sullivan said at the council meeting. “What’s the point of elections if you refuse to accept the decision of voters?”
Several local municipalities — including St. Louis — have instated a local use tax.
In 2021, the Missouri legislature passed a “Wayfair Tax” that added an approximately 4.2% levy to online purchases from out-of-state retailers with taxable sales of more than $100,000 annually.
