States will be able to force more people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a U.S. Supreme Court decisiion this past week.

One attorney involved in the case said consumers can expect to see sales tax charged on more online purchases — likely over the next year and potentially before the Christmas shopping season — as states and retailers react to the court’s decision.

In Kansas, 68th District State Representative Dave Baker, Council Grove, said nobody knows how big the impact will be. “I will tell you those in the rural areas, the more rural an area is the more they shop on the internet.” Baker stated, “It has been an extremely unfair situation for a long time. It has cost the state of Kansas billions of dollars, local governments have suffered immensely from this.”

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 opinion overruled a pair of decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collect sales tax on certain online purchases, and more than 40 states had asked the high court for action.

Baker feels the ruling help retail development throughout the nation. “The problem is going to be we’ve let it fall down so far I’m not sure we’ll bring it back to the level we once had. Internet shopping is here to stay, delivery systems are getting faster and faster. It will never be as it was.” Baker added is hopeful this decision will provide a way to level the playing field.