Click here to read our March 2014 posts or read each article by clicking on the title. A printable PDF is also available here. To read our commentary on the latest state and local tax developments as they are published, be sure to download the Sutherland SALT Shaker mobile app.

• MTC To Explore Apportionment Regulations for Cloud Services, Software and Electricity
  While meeting in Denver the week of March 10, 2014, the MTC’s Income Tax Uniformity Subcommittee advanced two separate projects to develop industry-specific apportionment regulations.
• Orange Crushed COP: Florida Ruling Finds Television Analytics Service Provider Must Source Receipts to Location of Its Customers
  The Florida Department of Revenue determined that a company providing television viewing data and analytics services must source its receipts from such services to the location of its customers, despite (1) the state’s majority costs of performance souring rule and (2) that the taxpayer appeared to incur the majority of its costs outside of the state.
• SALT Pet of the Month: Francois
  Meet Le Petit Prince Francois Malvar (Francois for short). Francois is a seven-month-old adorable Maltipoo belonging to Ana Malvar, Senior Indirect Tax Manager at Microsoft.
• Surprising Determination: Florida Breaks Tradition and Allows Taxpayer to Discontinue Consolidated Filings
  The Florida Department of Revenue determined that sufficient reasonable cause had been established to allow a taxpayer to discontinue filing a consolidated Florida corporate income tax return because the taxpayer had experienced “substantial growth.”
• Don’t Pack the Sales Tax: Missouri Rules Moving Boxes Not Taxable
  The Missouri Department of Revenue determined that clients of a moving company were not subject to sales tax on boxes provided by the company and used to move the clients’ belongings.
• “Throw Me the Idol, I’ll Throw You the Whip” Deal Bad for Archaeologists, Taxpayers: New Jersey Tax Court Orders Division of Taxation to Consider Validity of $32 Million Refund Claim
  The New Jersey Tax Court held that a mobile telecommunications service provider was not required to reimburse its customers before seeking a $32 million refund of erroneously collected sales tax.
• Chronicles of the New York False Claims Act: Lantheus and BMS Settle for $6.2 Million
  The New York Attorney General’s office posted a press release on March 14, 2014 announcing that Lantheus Medical Imaging and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lantheus’s former parent, agreed to a $6.2 million settlement for a claim filed pursuant to New York’s False Claims Act.
• New York Issues Technical Memorandum Explaining Sales and Use Tax Resale Exclusion for Cable and Satellite Providers After Echostar Case
  In a Technical Memorandum, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance explained the impact of the holding in Echostar, which addressed the New York sales and use tax resale exclusion for certain purchases made by satellite and cable television service providers.
• S&P Credit Ratings Business an “Other Business Receipt,” Allowed to Source Receipts Based on Audience
  The Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal ruled that The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., may source its receipts from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) public credit rating business using an audience-based method.
• New York Appellate Court Affirms Trial Court Ruling in Sprint False Claims Act Suit
  The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, affirmed a 2013 trial court ruling denying Sprint Nextel Corporation’s motion to dismiss the attorney general’s False Claims Act complaint.
• The Check is in the Mail: Billing and Collection Services Not Subject to Ohio Sales and Use Tax
  The Ohio Tax Commissioner determined that billing and collection services were nontaxable debt collection services rather than taxable automatic data processing services.
• South Carolina Seeks to Clarify Use of Alternative Apportionment and Combined Reporting
  The South Carolina Department of Revenue issued a draft revenue ruling that purports to clarify the use of alternative apportionment and combined reporting for corporate income tax purposes.