Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
On January 16, 2020, the Supreme Court of Washington, in an en banc decision, held that a retailer was entitled to take bad debt deductions for sales and Business and Occupation (“B&O”) taxes when its customers defaulted on purchases made using private label credit cards.
The retailer contracted with banks to offer private label credit…
The Colorado Court of Appeals held that the City of Aurora correctly levied use tax on American Multi-Cinema, Inc.’s (AMC’s) license agreements with film distributors. The court concluded that the true object of the arrangement was to obtain tangible personal property (i.e., the data files) rather than being a nontaxable, intangible right. In the past,…
On January 30, 2020, Governor Kemp signed Georgia’s marketplace facilitator bill, H.B. 276, into law. Effective April 1, 2020, the law will require marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales and use tax on behalf of marketplace sellers. It will apply to marketplace facilitators with sales in excess of $100,000 in the state.
A…
Over 40 state legislatures have convened their 2020 legislative sessions. Last year, states moved quickly to impose collection and remittance obligations on remote sellers and marketplace facilitators in light of Wayfair. This year, states are charting a new course – proposing legislation to expand sales taxes to include advertising services or proposing entirely new taxes…
A 2018 Arizona ballot initiative banned the imposition or increase of transaction-based taxes on services. A December 2019 ordinance in Phoenix increases the fee charged on pickups by on-demand drivers at the Phoenix airport. The ordinance was supposed to take effect February 1, 2020, but the city agreed to suspend collection as the state of…
Florida currently imposes a $2/day surcharge on the lease or rental of a motor vehicle. In order to treat digital businesses similarly to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, S.B. 478 seeks to extend the same fee to peer-to-peer car sharing services. If passed, the bill would be effective October 1, 2020.
On December 19, 2019, the Kentucky Supreme Court found in favor of the state of Ohio on its motion to dismiss a suit brought by a taxpayer in Kentucky state court against the State of Ohio. The taxpayer received an assessment for Ohio commercial activity tax (CAT) from the Ohio Department of Taxation, based on…
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…
