Digital Economy

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The Maryland Comptroller of Public Accounts issued guidance interpreting 2020 H.B. 932, entitled the 21st-Century Economy Fairness Act. Effective March 14, 2021, the act expanded the sales and use tax to sales and uses of digital products. Pursuant to its guidance, the Comptroller will apply tax to a variety of digital products – including e-books,…

Immediately before last Friday’s deadline for the filing of unrestricted bills, Texas lawmakers introduced a digital advertising tax bill and a bill that would expand sales tax to a wide array of services.

H.B. 4467, filed on March 12 by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-TX-116) would impose a tax on gross revenue from digital…

A pair of recently-introduced Maryland bills would create a whistleblower program within the Maryland Comptroller’s office and possibly result in a headache for many taxpayers. The proposed whistleblower bills appear to be modeled after the IRS’ whistleblower program, although they contain a noticeably low materiality threshold and allow for the anonymous reporting of complaints.

The…

The North Carolina Department of Revenue released a private letter ruling, concluding that a web-based product used to handle administration, management, and record-keeping via a Software as a Service model was not subject to sales and use tax. Consumers accessed the software application, which was running on a cloud-based infrastructure. The ruling states: “North…

In this episode of the SALT Shaker Podcast policy series, we discuss all things Maryland digital advertising tax. Talk about drama! We have a brand new tax, vetoes, veto overrides and litigation. State tax policy doesn’t get more exciting than this! Host and Eversheds Sutherland Partner Nikki Dobay of the Sacramento office is joined by…

The South Dakota Department of Revenue issued updated guidance regarding the application of sales tax to sales of Internet access and internet-related services. In particular, the Department added “Internet e-mail services” and “web hosting” to the list of exempt Internet-related services. However, the Department removed “live chat or conferencing fees” from the list. The Department…

Earlier today, the Maryland Senate passed S.B. 787, Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax and Tobacco Tax – Alterations and Implementation, on third reading (46-0). As amended, S.B. 787 makes the following relevant changes to the digital advertising tax:

  1. Exempts advertisement services on digital interfaces owned or operated by or operated on behalf of

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On February 22, 2021, the Georgia House of Representatives introduced H.B. 594, which would impose the Georgia sales tax on digital goods or services. The bill amends the definition of tangible personal property, subject to sales tax, to include “digital goods or services.” It defines digital goods or services to include: (1) specified digital…

On February 19, 2021, the New York Senate introduced S4959, which would impose a monthly excise tax on the collection of the consumer data of individual New York consumers by commercial data collectors. The tax rate varies based on the number of New York consumers the commercial data collector collects data on within the…