Cite as: 505 U. S. 214 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
possible to determine whether a particular incidental activity was related to the sale that preceded it or the sale that followed it.
B
The Wisconsin Supreme Court also held that a company does not necessarily forfeit its tax immunity under § 381 by performing some in-state business activities that go beyond "solicitation of orders"; rather, it said, "[c]ourts should also analyze" whether these additional activities were " 'deviations from the norm' " or "de minimis activities." 160 Wis. 2d, at 82, 465 N. W. 2d, at 811 (citation omitted). Wisconsin asserts that the plain language of the statute bars this recognition of a de minimis exception, because the immunity is limited to situations where "the only business activities within [the] State" are those described, 15 U. S. C. § 381 (emphasis added). This ignores the fact that the venerable maxim de minimis non curat lex ("the law cares not for trifles") is part of the established background of legal principles against which all enactments are adopted, and which all enactments (absent contrary indication) are deemed to accept. See, e. g., Republic of Argentina v. Weltover, Inc., 504 U. S. 607, 618 (1992); Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U. S. 1, 8-9 (1992); Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U. S. 651, 674 (1977); Abbott Laboratories v. Portland Retail Druggists Assn., Inc., 425 U. S. 1, 18 (1976); Industrial Assn. of San Francisco v. United States, 268 U. S. 64, 84 (1925). It would be especially unreasonable to abandon normal application of the de mini-mis principle in construing § 381, which operates in such stark, all-or-nothing fashion: A company either has complete net-income tax immunity or it has none at all, even for its solicitation activities. Wisconsin's reading of the statute renders a company liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes if one of its salesmen sells a 10-cent item in state. Finally, Wisconsin is wrong in asserting that application of the de minimis principle "excise[s] the word 'only' from the statute." Brief for Petitioner 27. The word "only" places
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