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With the threat of COVID-19 looming, several state legislatures will halt or temporarily suspend their legislative sessions, including: Colorado, Delaware, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Vermont. For many states, this is an unprecedented move while in others, the legislature has not adjourned early since the Civil War. Other state legislatures, like California’s…

Earlier today, the Maryland Senate considered Senate Bill 2, which would impose a new tax on digital advertising services. The Senate retained the Budget and Taxation Committee amendments that revise the sourcing provisions. However, the amendments provide authority to the Maryland Comptroller of the Treasury to determine when gross revenues are derived from digital…

The Washington Court of Appeals held that a laboratory created by the University of Utah was not a government entity exempt from Washington taxation.

Affirming the lower court’s decision, the Washington Court of Appeals rejected Arup Laboratories, Inc.’s arguments that it should be excluded from paying B&O taxes because it is an “arm of the…

Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court held that receipts from subscriptions to remote access software were subject to sales tax as taxable transfers of prewritten software.  Following a change in the law to tax sales of prewritten software regardless of medium of delivery, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue promulgated a regulation stating that such taxable sales include…

After nearly a decade of stalled litigation in Illinois state court, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit permitted a group of taxpayers to proceed in federal court with their US constitutional challenge to property tax assessments, over Tax Injunction Act and comity objections by Cook County. While the district court held that…

The Florida Department of Revenue issued a Technical Assistance Advisement concluding that an internet-based streaming video subscription service is subject to Florida’s communication services tax. The Taxpayer maintains a website where viewers can watch live or on-demand video of individuals (or, “Broadcasters”) playing video games, music or e-sports events. Among other things, the website provides…

On February 6, 2020, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals held that a captive automobile financing company was not subject to commercial activity tax (CAT) on receipts that it earned in connection with three types of revenue streams:

  1. receipts from sales of retired leased vehicles,
  2. receipts from securitization transactions, and
  3. interest subvention payments.

Background:…

On February 13, 2020, the Nebraska Legislature’s Revenue Committee heard testimony on Legislative Bill 989, which would expand Nebraska’s sales tax base to include sales of digital advertisements.

After an introduction by the bill’s sponsor, Senator Justin Wayne, the Revenue Committee heard testimony from four witnesses, each opposing the bill. The Committee also received…