Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
The California Office of Tax Appeals held that storing inventory at a third-party warehouse constitutes “doing business” for income and franchise tax purposes.
The taxpayer was a Pennsylvania-based corporation making online sales of apparel through a third-party digital marketplace. The taxpayer also contracted with the marketplace to hold and ship inventory from warehouses (fulfillment centers)…
The taxpayer, a fleet management company that leases fleets of commercial vehicles to businesses, used leases containing a terminal rental adjustment clause (TRAC). Under these leases, the lessee paid estimated monthly rent based on the projected residual book value of the vehicle at lease termination. When the lease ended, the estimated rent was retrospectively adjusted…
On January 26, 2026, SB 277 was introduced on behalf of Alaska’s Governor. This bill would, among other things, enact a temporary statewide sales and use tax on personal property and services. Currently, Alaska is one of five states (along with Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon) that do not impose a broad-based state sales…
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld a sales tax assessment against StubHub for the sale of tickets made through StubHub’s online marketplace. Between 2008 and 2013, more than $150 million tickets sales occurred between ticketholders and ticket buyers on StubHub’s platform for events that took place in Wisconsin. StubHub earned revenue from listing fees and commissions…
The New York Tax Appeals Tribunal affirmed its prior decision, upholding an Administrative Law Judge’s issuance of a subpoena requiring three Department employees to appear, and for the Department to produce documents for in-camera review, which included third-party tax information. The Tribunal rejected the Department’s request for re-argument because the Department presented no new issues…
The Alabama Tax Tribunal (Tribunal) determined that a wastewater treatment facility was entitled to a sales and use tax exemption for equipment purchased for use in its wastewater treatment business because the equipment was used primarily for exempt pollution control purposes.
The taxpayer, a privately owned entity that provided wastewater collection and treatment services, had…
On October 24, 2025, the Tennessee Department of Revenue ruled that subscription fees for a mobile heart-health app were subject to sales and use tax. The taxpayer charged an annual flat per-user subscription fee to clients who make subscription offerings available as part of medical benefits to their employees and employees’ dependents. For the subscription…
On July 3, 2025, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that sales of streaming video service subscriptions are subject to sales tax because they are sales of tangible personal property. Colorado imposes sales tax on retail sales and purchases of “tangible personal property,” which is defined as “corporeal personal property.” In 2021, the Department of…
The Supreme Court of Mississippi recently held that separate freight fees are not included in Mississippi use tax base. The taxpayer, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, paid use tax on certain tangible personal property that it used in Mississippi. It later paid freight charges to a third-party company to ship these goods to Mississippi and did…
The Supreme Court of Texas ruled that a corporation that owns and operates correctional facilities was not exempt from sales and use taxes as an unincorporated instrumentality of the United States or Texas. The corporation runs private prisons and enters into contracts with federal and state government agencies to house inmates. The Comptroller assessed the…
