Taxes

AS A PLAINTIFF in the lawsuit Anderson v. Attorney General, I applaud the court’s decision, although I don’t consider myself or the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the organization that I represent, the winner. The real winner is our democracy.

“The income surtax petition has raised legal, fiscal and economic concerns for the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,” said Eileen McAnneny, the group’s president. While the high court’s ruling addressed the legal concerns, she said, “the fiscal and economic ones remain as does our apprehension of embedding a tax in the constitution.

Those governments are now expected to swiftly start forcing online vendors to collect taxes. The Department of Revenue downplayed Thursday the potential impact on state revenues, but Eileen McAnneny, the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the additional tax collections now could reach “potentially in the hundreds of millions.”