Those no good, book-spreading fat cats over at Scholastic Book Club are finally getting their just desserts from the state of Connecticut, along with their nefarious teacher accomplices, who encourage kids to buy and read books. The state’s Supreme Court ruled the Missouri-based company must pay Connecticut sales tax.

The Hartford Courant says the ruling, which was a reversal of a previous judgment by a trial court, orders Scholastic to fork over $3.2 million in taxes, plus interest and penalties going back to 1995.

The justice who authored the unanimous decision says Scholastic has had enough of a presence in the state, due to teachers peddling books in classrooms, to pay up.

The decision was based on the “fact that some 14,000 Connecticut classroom teachers acted as the company’s representatives soliciting, processing and delivering books sales to students. While not compensated for their services, teachers received book catalogs from the company…collected orders and payment from students… received shipment and distributed books to the students.”

Those devious teachers! Always trying to push literacy on kids.

Connecticut is one of many states who went after Amazon to make it pay sales tax to the state, as it had ties with in-state web sites which would steer business to the online retail giant. Amazon then cut those ties and is working out its sales tax battles in places like Arizona, Indiana and California.

Connecticut Supreme Court: Scholastic Book Club Owes $3.2 Million in Sales and Use Tax [Hartford Courant]

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