Digital Economy

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Apple recently appealed an Ohio Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) assessment, alleging that the Department of Taxation improperly treated receipts from sales made through its app store as Apple’s receipts for purposes of determining its tax base under the CAT.  Ohio law allows agents to exclude gross receipts (other than commission) from the agent’s CAT base.…

Effective August 6, 2021, Illinois amended its unclaimed property law to include cryptocurrency. SB 338, Public Act 102-0288, was approved by the Governor and became law the same day. Under the unclaimed property law, “virtual currency” is presumed unclaimed after 5 years of no indication of interest by the apparent property owner. The new…

On August 10, 2021, the Hawaii Department of Taxation issued Tax Information Release No. 2021-06, clarifying the treatment and taxability of software sales under Hawaii’s general excise tax (GET). According to the Information Release, the sale of prewritten software is considered the sale of taxable tangible personal property regardless of whether the software is…

In Revenue Ruling 2021-001, the Alabama Department of Revenue ruled that IT services provided by a foreign company with no physical presence in Alabama are not subject to sales tax. The foreign company provided an information technology system remotely to an Alabama production plant. Although the company provided these services remotely, it would also…

The Multistate Tax Commission (MTC) adopted its long-awaited guidance interpreting Public Law (P.L.) 86-272 protections for internet businesses on August 4, 2021. P.L. 86-272 was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1959, and protects businesses from the imposition of state income tax when the business’s only activity in the state is the solicitation of orders…

On July 28, 2021, the Uniformity Committee of the Multistate Tax Commission’s (MTC) advanced the new project on Sales Taxation of Digital Goods (the Project). Specifically, the Standing Subcommittee recommended MTC staff draft an outline for a white paper that will explore issues concerning the state taxation of digital products and to provide guidance on…

The Mississippi Department of Revenue proposes to amend its regulation for Photographers and Film Developers to specify that certain digital products would be subject to sales tax. Under the proposed regulation, photographs, pictures, videos, discs, other tangible personal property and “specified digital products” sold by photographers and videographers are taxable. The proposed amendments would be…

The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department recently updated FYI-206, describing the gross receipts tax collection responsibilities for online marketplace providers and marketplace without physical presence in New Mexico. Marketplace providers and marketplace sellers with at least $100,000 of taxable gross receipts in New Mexico in the previous calendar year have a tax collection…

Last year, the Texas Comptroller proposed a regulation that affects how local sales tax is allocated for online sales, to become effective October 1, 2021. While Texas generally uses origin-based sourcing, under the new rule, online sales will generally be sourced to the destination of the sale. Local governments protested these amendments, arguing that…

The Indiana Department of State Revenue recently published Letter of Findings 01-20181612 (dated April 27, 2021), upholding the disallowance of a state research expense credit for the production of two enterprise level software applications. The Department found that the Indiana research expense credit claimed by the taxpayer was based on a similar federal credit, and…