Illinois’ revenues are starting to pick up again, in part thanks to sales tax.

Comparing the period of January through September of this year to the same in pre-pandemic 2019, sales and use tax receipts have increased 17%, WTTW News reported. Many are attributing the gain to new laws requiring online merchants to collect sales tax.

President of the Taxpayer Federation of Illinois Carol Portman said the increase is a mixture of more shopping and collection of sales tax by online merchants, noting the state revenue department has noticed the increase in tandem with new retail taxpayers in their system, WTTW News reported.

Illinois Retail Merchants Association President and CEO Rob Karr says this is a good thing.

A case involving Wayfair led to the U.S. Supreme Court deciding to require online sales to include sales tax.

Even after law required online businesses to collect sales tax, many local stores were still disadvantaged through additional local sales taxes from which online merchants were still exempt.

The Levelling the Playing Field for Illinois Retail Act implemented in 2021 required local sales taxes to be collected as well.

Karr said this isn’t really a new tax, it’s simply a uniform application of existing sales tax.

As brick and mortar stores struggle to keep their doors open, this allows them to compete fairly, says Karr.