Session Laws

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is immediately to promote economic development in the commonwealth, therefore, it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, a person whose sole business location in the commonwealth is a retail establishment within the Connecticut Riverfront Development District which includes the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as described in the urban renewal plan amendment approved by the executive office of communities and development or its successor agency, on or about May sixteenth, nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and that derives more than fifty percent of its gross revenues from mail order sales, shall be considered to have a business location in the commonwealth only with respect to its retail sales made at or from said business location within said district, and such person shall not be considered as engaged in business in the commonwealth as said term is defined in section one of chapter sixty-four H of the General Laws with respect to sales made by mail order from a location outside the commonwealth to customers within the commonwealth; provided, however, that the provisions of this act shall not apply unless such person: (1) files with the commissioner of revenue, not later than ninety days after the effective date of this act, a letter stating its intent to establish a retail business location within said Connecticut Riverfront Development District; and (2) files with said commissioner, not later than one hundred and eighty days after the effective date of this act, an affidavit attesting that it has entered into a lease or a purchase and sale agreement for such a retail business location within said district.

A person who meets the criteria of the first paragraph shall maintain records sufficient to enable the commissioner of revenue to determine which of its sales are made at or from the business location within said district, and which are made by mail order from outside the commonwealth to customers within the commonwealth. If such person does not maintain such records, the commissioner shall presume that all sales made by such person to customers in the commonwealth are made at or from the business location within the district. Nothing in said first paragraph shall be construed as (i) affecting the jurisdiction of the commonwealth to impose on such person a corporate excise under chapter sixty-three of the General Laws; or (ii) precluding imposition of a use tax pursuant to chapter sixty-four I of the General Laws collection responsibility upon such person to the extent that imposition of such responsibility is otherwise consistent with state and federal law.