AB910 prohibits online retailers from selling cigars or pipe tobacco without a “remote” permit, including for the collection of state taxes, and mandates the use of an age verification system.
The Senate passed AB910 on March 12, 2024, by a vote of 30 to 2. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill would force certain online retailers in the United States, even in states without a sales tax, to act as out-of-state tax collectors for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Subjecting American citizens and businesses in one state to taxes and regulations of another state is “taxation without representation.” It not only places an additional state tax on consumers, but also kowtows to the federal Food and Drug Administration’s erroneous minimum-age requirement that denies to adult citizens younger than 21 years of age—who are eligible to vote and enlist in the military—their right to purchase tobacco. The U.S. Constitution’s commerce and due process provisions were intended to protect individual rights and free-market enterprise against such discriminatory and burdensome forms of taxation.