Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Jessica Allen and Jeff Friedman
The Tennessee Department of Revenue (Department) released a letter ruling stating that a taxpayer’s charges for use of its web-based interface are subject to sales and use tax as the sale of ancillary services. The taxpayer’s proprietary software allows users to communicate through text and other messages on a…
By Christopher Lutz and Jeff Friedman
On December 15, 2016, the Tennessee Joint Government Operations Committee held a hearing regarding the governor’s proposal to establish an economic nexus standard for the state sales tax. Under the proposal, remote sellers would be subject to collection obligations in the state if their Tennessee sales exceed $500,000. The…
By Elizabeth Cha and Timothy Gustafson
On October 26, 2016, the South Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling and determined the Department of Revenue (Department) failed to satisfy its burden of showing that the statutory apportionment formula did not fairly represent Rent-A-Center West Inc.’s (RAC) business activities in South Carolina. This case…
By Charles Capouet and Maria Todorova
The Franklin County Circuit Court held that Netflix’s subscription-based streaming video service was not subject to Kentucky’s gross revenues tax, excise tax and school tax (telecommunications taxes) imposed on “multichannel video programming service” (MVPS). Under Kentucky law, MVPS is programming “provided by or generally considered comparable to programming provided…
The Louisiana Department of Revenue has proposed a new regulation expansively interpreting Louisiana’s recently enacted related party expense addback statute.
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By Mike Kerman and Jonathan Feldman
The Florida Department of Revenue advised that certain materials and labor a taxpayer plans to use to construct a combined heating and power plant will be exempt from Florida sales and use tax. The plant will produce electricity for sale. Florida exempts purchases of machinery and equipment necessary to …
By Chelsea Marmor and Tim Gustafson
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts issued a franchise tax letter clarifying that “total mileage” for purposes of computing the Texas special apportionment formula for transportation receipts may either include or exclude “empty miles” provided symmetry is maintained between a taxpayer’s numerator and denominator. “Empty miles,” or deadhead miles…
By Chelsea Marmor and Andrew Appleby
The Kentucky Court of Appeals held that a Kentucky statute, which retroactively reduced vendors’ 1% deduction of the sales tax collected and remitted to Kentucky to $1,500 in any monthly reporting period, did not violate the Kentucky Constitution. Wal-Mart argued that the statute violated the Kentucky Constitution because the…
By Jessica Eisenmenger and Tim Gustafson
The Supreme Court of Mississippi held that a county had the right to a jury trial in an appeal of the county’s ad valorem tax assessment. In reaching its decision, the court relied on centuries-old customs, practices and decisions upholding the right to a jury trial in tax assessment…
By Nick Kump and Scott Wright
The Louisiana Court of Appeal held that income derived from diagnostic testing of Louisiana patients’ blood samples and other medical specimens performed in Texas should be sourced to Texas for corporate income tax apportionment purposes. The taxpayer, which operates a multistate network of laboratories where it performs medically prescribed…
