Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Mike Kerman and Amy Nogid
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts concluded that a Texas-based national radio network must apportion its advertising receipts based on the ratio of radio stations that license and broadcast its programming from Texas compared to the total number of radio stations that license and broadcast such programming. The taxpayer…
By Evan Hamme and Marc Simonetti
The Texas Comptroller upheld a taxpayer’s separate Franchise Tax return filing position, rejecting an Administrative Law Judge’s finding that the taxpayer and its affiliate shared a strong centralized management structure that required a unitary combined report. Although the companies were commonly owned and shared an administrator, the Comptroller found…
By Elizabeth Cha and Charlie Kearns
In Hegar v. CheckFree Serv. Corp., a Texas Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision and held that the taxpayer’s online bill pay service was not a taxable data processing service for Texas sales tax purposes. Based on the trial court’s uncontested factual findings, the taxpayer provided…
By Zack Atkins and Eric Coffill
The Alabama Tax Tribunal concluded that an out-of-state retailer was required to collect and remit use tax on the sales of books and educational materials to in-state teachers and students, and that neither the Due Process Clause nor the Commerce Clause impeded the Alabama Department of Revenue’s authority to…
By Mike Kerman and Open Weaver Banks
The Virginia Tax Commissioner ruled that an out-of-state corporation had nexus with Virginia because an employee performed accounting, human resources, payroll and customer support functions from a home office in Virginia. The Commissioner explained that out-of-state corporations are subject to Virginia corporate income tax if they have sufficient…
On March 24, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 960, which would adjust the statutory interest rate applicable to tax assessments and refunds and addresses other issues related to refund claims for Georgia sales and use taxes. H.B. 960 passed the legislature while the Georgia Department of Revenue continues to consider regulatory action that would …
By Elizabeth Cha and Scott Wright
The Texas Court of Appeals held that a seismic data gathering company was entitled to a cost of goods sold (COGS) deduction for costs of labor and materials incurred to acquire and process seismic data for its clients. Pursuant to Tex. Tax Code § 171.1012(i), a taxpayer may include…
By Evan Hamme and Andrew Appleby
The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that an initiative to amend the state’s constitution does not violate the state’s constitutional rule that a public vote to amend the constitution must address only one general subject (one general subject rule). Although the proposed constitutional amendment contains multiple sections making multiple proposals…
By Hanish Patel and Marc Simonetti
The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) determined that the sale of certain online membership benefits—early, exclusive access to products and deals and unlimited cloud data storage—were not subject to Florida sales tax or the Communications Service Tax (CST). However, the DOR added that the taxpayer’s purchase of reorder button…
By Jessica Eisenmenger and Amy Nogid
The Florida Department of Revenue determined that software upgrades that are delivered electronically are not subject to sales tax because the upgrade was a stand-alone version of the software and did not rely on the earlier, physically-delivered software to operate. The Department also determined that sales tax does not…
