Michigan

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The Michigan Department of Treasury issued a Notice announcing that it will no longer impose sales or use tax on certain prewritten computer software accessed electronically and associated online services. The Notice comes on the heels of the Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Auto-Owners Insurance Company v. Department of Treasury and the Michigan Supreme …

By Nick Kump and Charlie Kearns

On October 27, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in favor of the taxpayer and held that several contracts for data processing services, access to computer programs and databases, and other online services did not include the use of taxable prewritten computer software. After considering…

The long saga of Michigan’s Multistate Tax Compact election continued on Wednesday with oral argument before the Michigan Court of Appeals. A packed courtroom witnessed a 1.5 hour proceeding before an active three-judge panel. The arguments focused primarily on: (1) whether legislation can retroactively repeal the state’s adoption of the Multistate Tax Compact; (2) whether…

Upholding retroactive legislation recently enacted by the Michigan Legislature, the Michigan Court of Claims today dismissed multiple cases where taxpayers had appealed the Department of Treasury’s denial of their ability to elect three-factor apportionment under the Multistate Tax Compact.  See, i.e., Taskawa America, Inc. v. Department of Treasury, Case No. 11-000077-MT (Mich. Ct.

By Nicole Boutros and Timothy Gustafson

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a taxpayer claiming a Michigan use tax exemption for sales tax “due and paid” on its purchases of tangible personal property must demonstrate that it actually paid sales tax on such property. The taxpayer provided a marine transportation service to transport asphalt and…

On July 14, 2014, the Michigan Supreme Court in a splintered 3-1-3 decision found in favor of IBM’s election to apply the Multistate Tax Compact’s three-factor apportionment formula to the now-repealed Michigan Business Tax (MBT).
Background
Several states, including Michigan in 1970, entered into the Multistate Tax Compact (Compact), which describes how multistate corporations allocate

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By David Pope and Timothy Gustafson 

The Michigan Court of Appeals held that Thomson Reuters’ sale of Checkpoint, an online tax and accounting research program, was the sale of a nontaxable information service and not tangible personal property for purposes of Michigan’s use tax. The Michigan Department of Treasury argued Checkpoint was tangible personal…

By Jessica Kerner and Pilar Mata

The Michigan Court of Claims held that cloud computing, or software as a service (SaaS), is a nontaxable service rather than a taxable use of prewritten software. The taxpayer, an insurance company, entered into various transactions that provided the taxpayer with remote access to third parties’ software. The Michigan…