State efforts to obtain customer identifying information as part of digital goods audits have put a spotlight on data privacy concerns. State tax authorities often request customer names, addresses, telephone numbers, and even Social Security numbers and tax IDs, claiming this sensitive information is vital to determine how to source digital transactions.

In this article published by Bloomberg Tax, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Eric Tresh and Chelsea Marmor discuss how digital sales tax reporting rules are raising data privacy concerns and analyze conflicts from the intersection of data privacy and tax.

Read the full article here.

In the newest episode of the SALT Shaker Podcast, Eversheds Sutherland Counsel Jeremy Gove takes a close look at San Francisco’s tax system with the help of Eversheds Sutherland Counsel John Ormonde and Bart Baer, Chief Tax Counsel for The California Taxpayers Association.

Jeremy, John and Bart review San Francisco from a tax perspective, specifically discussing its various gross receipts taxes, including the homelessness gross receipts tax, and overpaid executive gross receipts tax.

They discuss how these taxes affect the business tax climate in San Francisco, and the latest news affecting the city’s business tax system, including the reduction of in-office workers.

They also cover the current reform efforts in the city and impacts of these taxes at the local level.

Their discussion concludes with a breakfast themed overrated/underrated question – where does oatmeal fall on the spectrum of breakfast food?

Questions or comments? Email SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com. You can also subscribe to receive our regular updates hosted on the SALT Shaker blog.

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Calling all trivia fans! Don’t miss out on a chance to show off your SALT knowledge!

We will award prizes for the smartest (and fastest) participants.

This week’s question: What state legislature is currently considering a budget proposal that would cap corporate income tax credits and limit the use of net operating loss carryforwards for tax years 2024, 2025, and 2026?

E-mail your response to SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com.

The prize for the first response to today’s question is a $25 UBER Eats gift card. This week’s answer will be included in our SALT Shaker Weekly Digest, distributed on Saturday. Be sure to check back then!

The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that a taxpayer was a manufacturer for purposes of the State’s Mill Machinery Exemption, and was therefore entitled to a sales and use tax exemption on its purchase of materials used to produce hot mixed asphalt (HMA).

North Carolina exempts manufacturing companies subject to a lower mill machinery privilege tax from higher sales and use taxes. During the years at issue, the taxpayer used between approximately 79% and 85% of the HMA it produced for various construction projects where it served as a contractor or subcontractor and sold the remaining HMA to customers. The Department of Revenue asserted that the taxpayer was a contractor, and not a manufacturer subject to the privilege tax, because it was “primarily engaged” in construction and commercial site work, and the majority of the HMA it produced was used in those projects, rather than sold to customers. The lower court found that there was no requirement under the governing statute that the taxpayer use the tangible personal property purchased to produce HMA for the “primary or principal purpose” of selling it to third parties to qualify for the exemption. Moreover, the lower court found that the taxpayer had produced “extremely large quantities” of HMA by utilizing a processes that the North Carolina Supreme Court described as manufacturing (i.e., “the producing of a new article or use or ornament by the application of skill and labor to the raw materials of which it is composed”). On appeal, the Supreme Court adopted the lower court’s reasoning and affirmed the ruling in a two-paragraph opinion.

N.C. Dep’t of Revenue v. FSC II LLC, No. 150A23, 2024 N.C. LEXIS 340 (May 23, 2024).

The Alabama Tax Tribunal held that a parent company could not use its losses to offset the income of a bank that it owned through an intermediate holding company for the purposes of the state’s Financial Institution Excise Tax (FIET). The applicable law allowed financial institution members of a commonly owned controlled group to file a consolidated return if each entity is a financial institution required to file an excise tax return in the state. The intermediate holding company did not do business in the state and was therefore not a “financial institution” eligible to file a consolidated return with the bank. Further, the intermediate holding company did not qualify under the alternative definition of a “financial institution” because it only owned the bank and was therefore not the parent of a “controlled group of corporations eligible to elect file a consolidated excise tax return.” The statute with the alternative definition of “financial institution” was subsequently amended to allow indirect ownership of a bank, but the amendment was not retroactive and therefore did not apply to the years at issue.

Ally Fin. v. State of Ala. Dep’t of Revenue, No. 20-659-LP, (Ala. Tax Trib. May 13, 2024).

SALT Partner Jeff Friedman is pleased to join Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law’s Second Annual State and Local Tax (SALT) Forum on June 6. Hosted by the Graduate Tax Program, the forum will help answer critical questions of what is taxable in the digital economy. Jeff’s panel will help attendees understand “it” — tangible personal property, a service, an intangible or something else?

Register and find more information here.

The Louisiana Court of Appeal held that online travel booking companies were not “dealers” required to collect sales taxes. The Louisiana Department of Revenue and various localities sued the booking companies for only collecting tax on the wholesale rate charged by the hotels rather than the retail rate charged to customers, which included a service fee. The court held that the booking companies were not liable for the additional tax because Louisiana Revised Statutes 47:301(14)(a) requires that the taxable furnishing of sleeping rooms be done “by hotels,” and the booking companies are not hotels. Further, the service fee charged by the booking companies was not a charge for an enumerated taxable service in Louisiana.

Robinson v. Priceline.com, Dkt. No. 2023 CA 0069, (La. Ct. App. 2024).

Calling all trivia fans! Don’t miss out on a chance to show off your SALT knowledge!

We will award prizes for the smartest (and fastest) participants.

This week’s question: Previously, a law in South Dakota only permitted the sale of baked goods from an individual’s home to consumers. In its Spring Newsletter, however, the South Dakota Department of Revenue clarified that the sales tax also applies to another type of goods, which was recently permitted to be sold from an individual’s home to consumers. What type of goods is it?

E-mail your response to SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com.

The prize for the first response to today’s question is a $25 UBER Eats gift card. This week’s answer will be included in our SALT Shaker Weekly Digest, distributed on Saturday. Be sure to check back then!

This week, SALT Counsel Chelsea Marmor will participate in a panel discussion during the Federal Bar Association’s 39th Annual Insurance Tax Seminar, held May 30 – 31. Join Chelsea as she helps cover multistate tax topics of interest, including recent developments impacting the insurance industry resulting from business changes and legislative activity. Topics to be addressed include nexus, filing obligations and sourcing of receipts for both direct and indirect tax purposes.

For more information, click here.

Meet May’s SALT Pet of the Month, Loki! This gentle giant, named after the mischievous Marvel character, makes his home with John Barnes, Senior Tax Director at T-Mobile.

True to his name, the two-year-old Great Dane keeps John and his family on their toes with plenty of playful antics. Loki loves to put his whole face in his water bowl, drink from the hose (pictured below!) and follow his humans around like a loyal shadow.

When he’s not relishing car rides, walks or a game of hide and seek, Loki can be found indulging in chicken jerky, peanut butter or even nibbling on his own front leg – sucking on it like a personal pacifier!

Determined to emulate a lap dog, Loki will try to sit in your lap and let you know when he’s had enough attention.

John and his family are lucky to have this kind fellow. Welcome to the SALT Pet of the Month club, Loki!


Click here to submit information and photos about your pet to be featured on stateandlocaltax.com!