Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
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 Charles Capouet and Madison Barnett
The Florida Department of Revenue determined that a Florida data center’s power fees are not subject to gross receipts tax but may be subject to sales tax. The taxpayer operates a colocation data center and purchases electricity to power the data center from a utility. The taxpayer’s customers have…
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,…
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By Stephen Burroughs and Andrew Appleby
The Florida Department of Revenue determined that the sale of remote storage and cloud computing services, along with related data transfer fees, are information services not subject to Florida sales tax or Communication Service Tax (CST). The taxpayer’s remote storage service grants customers access to servers for data storage.
By Madison Barnett and Andrew Appleby
The Florida Department of Revenue determined that a company providing television viewing data and analytics services must source its receipts from such services to the location of its customers, despite (1) the state’s majority costs of performance souring rule and (2) that the taxpayer appeared to incur the majority…
By Suzanne Palms and Pilar Mata
The Florida Department of Revenue determined that sufficient reasonable cause had been established to allow a taxpayer to discontinue filing a consolidated Florida corporate income tax return because the taxpayer had experienced “substantial growth.” The Department noted that the taxpayer’s employees, assets and income had increased, and the taxpayer…
By Zachary Atkins and Douglas Mo
A Florida trial court ruled that imposing different tax rates on cable and satellite television services did not violate the Commerce Clause or the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The statute in question imposes a statewide communications services tax at a higher rate on satellite service than…
