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

We will award a prize for the smartest (and fastest) participant.

This week’s question: The Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board recently released a report announcing that which state will be back in compliance with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement beginning in October?

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 Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court found that while a three-year statute of limitations generally governs the time for taxpayers to file a refund, a separate, more specific statute of limitations applies when a corporate taxpayer’s request for a refund is precipitated by a change to taxable income made by the IRS. The Court explained that the more specific statute of limitations provision prevails because it is an exception to the general rule. Accordingly, the Court overruled the Pennsylvania Board of Appeals and the Board of Finance and Revenue’s decision that the taxpayer’s refund request was untimely. However, the Court remanded the case to the Board of Finance and Revenue to determine the appropriate definition for “taxable income” that would trigger the Department to adjust its records and confirm to the revised tax.

Mission Funding Beta Co. v. Commonwealth, No. 411 F.R. 2019, slip op. (Pa. Commw. Ct. Aug. 14, 2025).

This week, SALT Partner Jeff Friedman will speak at the 2025 Northeastern States Tax Officials Association (NESTOA) Annual Conference, held in Philadelphia, PA.

Jeff will help present New Developments in the SALT Mine, a session highlighting the latest interesting and significant SALT cases and developments.

To learn more about this year’s NESTOA Annual Conference, visit this link.

There was a great deal of activity in New York in the second quarter of 2025, including several new cases and decisions concerning state and local taxes affecting taxpayers in New York State and New York City.

In this installment of NY Tax Talk, a quarterly column in Law360 focused on recent developments in New York tax law, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Liz Cha and Daniel Hopper focus on two issues showcasing the interplay between state and local taxes and federal law, as well as a few key tax-related political developments.

Read the full article here.

The Texas Comptroller issued a private letter ruling on June 3, 2025, addressing whether the selling of bitcoin is “either the sale of tangible personal property (TPP) or the sale of a security” for Texas franchise tax purposes. The taxpayer requesting the guidance, a qualified S corporation for federal purposes, acquires bitcoin and resells the bitcoin to its customers in exchange for cash at ATMs. The Comptroller concluded that because bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and digital asset/digital token, bitcoin is intangible property, not tangible personal property.  Because bitcoin is intangible property, the taxpayer cannot use its costs from acquiring the bitcoin in its cost of goods sold deduction when determining its franchise tax liability. The Comptroller also concluded that bitcoin does not qualify under the franchise tax’s definition of “security,” nor is it a “currency” to either the IRS or the Texas Department of Banking.

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

We will award a prize for the smartest (and fastest) participant.

This week’s question: A recently introduced bill in New York proposes a 0.2% tax on which type of transactions?

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!

Is this the year for updated conformity? Will FTB and CDTFA finalize long-awaited regulatory amendments? What key tax cases are pending in California courts and what hangs in the balance?

On August 20, join Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Tim Gustafson and Eric Coffill as they try and answer these questions and more in this California tax development webinar.

There’s still time to register here.

On August 15, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a Maryland statutory provision prohibiting sellers from itemizing the digital advertising tax (DAT) on their invoices violates the First Amendment. As readers are likely aware, the DAT is imposed on gross revenues from digital advertising services in Maryland. After originally enacting the tax over the governor’s veto in 2021, the legislature subsequently passed a provision that prohibited sellers from “directly pass[ing] on the cost of the tax … to a customer who purchases the digital advertising services by means of a separate fee, surcharge, or line-item.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade associations sued in federal court, arguing that the provision is a content-based restriction on speech that forbids the taxpayers from explaining the tax to their customers. 

The Fourth Circuit agreed, finding that the pass-through impermissibly regulates protected speech. Specifically, the court interpreted the DAT as forbidding three specific ways of speaking to its customers about passing on the cost of the tax—that is, noting a separate cost on the customer’s bill—while allowing taxpayers to explain the increased prices by other means. Additionally, the court found that the pass-through provision’s speech regulation is content-based and therefore subject to at least intermediate judicial scrutiny, which it fails. Accordingly, the Fourth Circuit held the pass-through provision of the DAT is “unconstitutional in all of its applications” and thus facially violates the First Amendment. The Fourth Circuit remanded the case back to the District Court to determine the appropriate remedy. Meanwhile, litigation related to the entire DAT’s constitutionality brought by other taxpayers is still pending in the Maryland Tax Court.

Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America et al. v. Lierman, No. 24-1727 (4th Cir. Aug. 15, 2025).

Closing out a process that began nearly nine years ago, the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) recently submitted proposed amendments to its market sourcing regulation, California Code of Regulations, title 18, section 25136-2, to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for final approval. The version submitted to OAL includes the same simplifying presumptions for sourcing receipts from services, special sourcing rules for receipts from asset management services, and special assignment rule for professional services provided to more than 250 customers that had appeared in recent drafts. The latest version also includes clarifying language regarding how a taxpayer may substantiate where the benefit of a service is received. Additionally, the effective date of the amendments has been revised, with the amendments applicable to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. Under California’s Administrative Procedure Act, OAL has 30 working days to approve or disapprove the rulemaking action.

See our prior coverage here and here for additional information on the proposed amendments and background on the entire process. 

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

We will award a prize for the smartest (and fastest) participant.

This week’s question: Which New England state is considering legislation to regulate hemp-derived beverages in a manner similar to alcohol?

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!