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On January 8, 2020, the Court of Appeal of Louisiana partly affirmed and partly reversed a district court’s rejection of the Louisiana Department of Revenue’s franchise tax audit changes for a taxpayer that owned and operated, through subsidiaries and an affiliate, casinos and horse-racing facilities. Following an audit, the Department made numerous adjustments to the…

In a recent private letter ruling, the South Carolina Department of Revenue held that software subscription services are tangible personal property subject to sales and use taxes. A software company that provides a cloud-based business management and billing platform for medical equipment suppliers requested the letter ruling to determine whether its subscription charges were subject…

The New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) held that Apple improperly collected sales tax on sales of Apple computers and iPads because it discounted the purchase price by the amount of gift cards it gave to customers as part of a back-to-school promotion.  Under New York tax regulation, the amount of a discount of…

Earlier this month, Maryland State Senators Miller and Ferguson introduced Senate Bill 2, which would tax Maryland digital advertising service gross revenues at up to a 10% rate. Earlier today, the Department of Legislative Services issued the Fiscal and Policy Note for the proposal, which estimates up to $250 million of revenue in the…

The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District upheld a trial court’s judgment that a plaintiff lacked standing to challenge the sales tax practices of a technology company because she did not establish the existence of an economic injury. The plaintiff purchased cellphones from the technology company at a discounted price as part…

On January 13, 2020, the Washington Court of Appeals upheld the Washington Department of Revenue’s retailing characterization of taxpayer’s provision of online access to information in a digital research library. Therefore the taxpayer’s service was subject to Washington sales tax and the higher business and occupation (B&O) tax rate. Gartner, Inc. v. Washington Department of…

On January 14, 2020, legislation (L.B. 989) was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature that would expand the sales tax base to include sales of “digital advertisements.” “Digital advertisement” means “an advertising message delivered over the Internet that markets or promotes a particular good, service, or political candidate or message.” Nebraska is now the…