In this episode of the SALT Shaker Podcast, Eversheds Sutherland Partner Tim Gustafson joins Associate Jeremy Gove for a deep dive into California’s market-based sourcing regulation.

Together they discuss various interpretations of and proposed amendments to the regulation offered over the past six years, and how the interpretations and amendments might affect taxpayers.

They wrap

Approximately 34 states require market sourcing to source sales of other than tangible personal property. Many states adopted market-sourcing rules in recent years and are only now beginning to finalize regulations regarding their implementation. A number of states have also adopted market-sourcing regulations attempting to provide additional clarity through more detailed rules.

In this installment

The Washington Court of Appeals recently issued a divided (2-1) decision in a case involving Washington’s “benefits received” test for apportioning service income.  The Court ruled that the “benefit” of an airplane design firm’s services were received in Washington, where the taxpayer’s direct customer, Boeing, manufactured the airplanes incorporating the taxpayer’s airplane designs, rather than

On Friday, June 4, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. PST, the California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) will hold its sixth interested parties meeting (“IPM”) to discuss its latest proposed amendments to the market-based sourcing regulation, Cal. Code Regs., Title 18, Section 25136-2. At the IPM, FTB will discuss and solicit public input on the newly-proposed regulation

California uses market-based sourcing to apportion sales of other than tangible personal property to the state. Under the governing statute, sales of services are sourced to California to the extent the purchaser of the service receives the benefit in the state.1 Sales of intangible personal property are sourced to California to the extent the

Oral argument was held June 11 in the highly unusual case of Synthes USA HQ Inc. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

  • The Attorney General faced skeptical questioning from the Commonwealth Court, with one judge suggesting that the Attorney General was “defeating,” rather than representing, the interests of the Department of Revenue.
  • Synthes involves the question of

The Florida Department of Revenue determined that a platform software company should source its income from user fees and from its sale of services on a market basis, based on the location of the customer to which the services are provided. The platform software company provided a platform for developers to create and sell software

The shift in tax collection responsibility to marketplace facilitators raises questions on how to accurately source sales made through the marketplaces. Depending on the state sourcing rules, a marketplace facilitator may need to know whether sourcing is determined based on the presence/location of the marketplace seller in the state or the presence/location of the marketplace

The Virginia Supreme Court held that the use of the cost-of-performance method to apportion nearly 100% of the taxpayer’s sales of services to Virginia did not violate the U.S. Constitution, even though over 95% of the taxpayer’s customers were located outside of the state – perhaps an expected result for a services company based in