Florida

Subscribe to Florida

The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s certification of a class in a sales tax refund claim because the class was not “ascertainable.” Plaintiff filed suit against BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. (“BJ’s”) alleging that BJ’s thirty-one Florida stores improperly imposed sales tax on the full, undiscounted price of products purchased with a…

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…

By Michael Penza and Amy Nogid 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit invalidated Florida’s rental tax imposed on the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s (the Tribe) leases of tribal land to non-Indian corporations, but upheld Florida’s utility tax collected from the Tribe. 

The Tribe operated casinos on two of its reservations; non-Indian corporations…

By Zachary T. Atkins and Open Weaver Banks

In a closely followed case, a Florida district court of appeal held that a proposed assessment is not an assessment for statute of limitations purposes. The Florida Department of Revenue generally has three years to “determine and assess” any tax, penalty or interest due. The Department has…

By Jessie Eisenmenger and Timothy Gustafson

In a Technical Assistance Advisement, the Florida Department of Revenue determined the proper sourcing methodology for income from twelve different types of sales by an online service provider (OSP) for Florida sales factor purposes. The OSP collects data that it distributes to its customers by a variety of methods…

By Sahang-Hee Hahn and Prentiss Willson
The Florida Department of Revenue permitted a taxpayer to discontinue filing Florida consolidated corporate income tax returns because the taxpayer established that its affiliated group’s business focus had changed significantly since making its election. In Florida, a parent corporation may elect to file a consolidated corporate income tax return.

…