On August 7, the Chicago Department of Finance delayed the effective date of the imposition of the Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax on cloud computing services from September 1, 2015, to January 1, 2016. However, the Department did not delay the effective date of the imposition of the Amusement Tax on streaming services. Chicago will

By Mike Kerman and Timothy Gustafson

The Illinois Department of Revenue issued a General Information Letter explaining how it will apply retailers’ occupation tax (ROT) and telecommunications excise tax (TET) to videoconferencing services. The taxpayer that sought the letter acts as a broker to match customers that need videoconferencing services with affiliates that operate videoconferencing

By Andrew Appleby

Illinois enacted a direct placement tax on non-admitted insurance in 2014. However, there is a strong movement in Illinois to repeal or narrow the tax. Tennessee has now legislatively expanded its direct placement tax on non-admitted insurance, falling in line with many other states, including Illinois. Previously, Tennessee imposed a direct placement

By Nicole Boutros and Pilar Mata

The Illinois Cook County Circuit Court held that an Illinois law firm (the Relator) that filed a qui tam lawsuit against a taxpayer failed to meet its burden to prove the taxpayer knowingly failed to collect and remit Illinois use tax, as required under the Illinois False Claims Act.

State Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABORs) are intended to ensure that taxpayers are treated fairly. In this edition of A Pinch of SALT, Sutherland tax attorneys Jonathan A. Feldman, Madison J. Barnett and Suzanne M. Palms explore TABORs offered by several states and the meaningful protections that they offer.
View the full article reprinted from

By Derek Takehara and Andrew Appleby

The Illinois Department of Revenue determined that a wholesale distributor of international telecommunications services could source its long-distance telephone receipts based on its Illinois property factor. The taxpayer, an intermediate international telecommunications carrier, owned and rented equipment in several states, including Illinois. Illinois law provides that a taxpayer must

By Sahang-Hee Hahn and Pilar Mata

The Illinois Department of Revenue determined that a taxpayer’s cloud computing receipts should be sourced for sales factor purposes using a market-based approach because the receipts were derived from services. The taxpayer was an information technology hosting services provider engaged in a business that focused on the delivery and

By Madison Barnett and Jonathan Feldman

The Illinois Supreme Court held that Illinois’ local Retailers’ Occupation Tax (ROT) sourcing regulations—which applied a bright-line test to assign sales to the location where the purchase order was accepted—were not supported by the controlling tax imposition statutes and thus were invalid. The taxpayer, like many others in Illinois, established

By Todd Betor and Andrew Appleby

The Illinois Department of Revenue granted a taxpayer’s request to use an alternative apportionment method, determining that application of the standard single sales factor formula did not fairly represent the market for the taxpayer’s goods, services or other sources of income. The taxpayer’s only sale during the year in

In a 6-1 decision, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed an Illinois Circuit Court holding that Illinois Public Act 96-1544 (The Click-Through Nexus Act), requiring out-of-state retailers to collect and remit use tax, violates the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Performance Marketing Ass’n v. Hamer, Docket No. 114496 (Oct. 18, 2013).

View the full Legal Alert