sales tax

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On July 23, 2025, the Indiana Department of State Revenue issued Revenue Ruling # 2025-02-RST holding that generative artificial intelligence (AI) services accessed through web browsers or application programming interfaces are considered services and not subject to sales/use tax. The ruling involved a company headquartered outside of Indiana that provides advanced AI services to customers…

The New York Division of Tax Appeals determined that the taxpayer’s sale of a document management services was a taxable sale of software. While the taxpayer argued that its service was a nontaxable, cloud-based platform-as-a-service, the ALJ disagreed. Instead, the ALJ concluded that the taxpayer’s software was the “core element” of the platform, and customers…

The New York Appellate Division, Third Department recently held that a group of taxpayer-plaintiffs were not required to exhaust administrative remedies before commencing an action to declare their services were exempt from sales tax, even though they had not challenged their audit determinations before the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal. 

Ordinarily, taxpayers in New…

On May 20, 2025, the last day for bill signing, Washington Governor Ferguson signed two key tax bills that expand the sales tax to include additional services and increase the rates of the (awful) business and occupation (B&O) tax. Some of these increases are targeted at certain industries and will incite litigation. A projected budget…

The Iowa Department of Revenue ruled that while a data center property owner and its tenant can both independently qualify for the sales tax exemption for data center businesses, the property owner and the tenant cannot aggregate their investments to meet the minimum investment requirement. Iowa law provides a sales tax exemption for data center…

New York continues to closely review the application of state sales tax to services performed using software platforms. 

Recently, two May decisions by the New York Tax Appeals Tribunal and the New York Division of Tax Appeals affirmed the Division of Taxation’s decision to tax service providers for the sales of prewritten computer software in…

The Washington Court of Appeals recently upheld the dismissal of a putative class action brought against four grocery store chains that collected sales tax on sales of 100 percent juice beverages. A taxpayer alleged that the grocers violated Washington’s Retail Sales Tax Act and Consumer Protection Act by wrongfully collecting sales tax on the exempt…

The sales taxation of software has long been controversial. When sales of software became commonplace in the 1970s and 1980s, it was largely available and commercially distributed on a tangible medium. Today, software is provided in ways that do not constitute the transfer of title or possession of tangible personal property, such as the Software-as-a-service…

The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held that the state’s sales tax exemption for the sale of aircraft parts and maintenance does not apply to per-flight-hour aircraft lease charges for repairs and maintenance.

Under Wis. Stat. § 77.51(15b)(a), sales tax applies to the total amount of consideration that the taxpayer receives for leasing its aircraft, without…

The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision and held that retroactive application of the 2014 revisions to the “prepaid telephone calling card” provision of the Tax Code were unconstitutional as applied to the taxpayer. Taxpayer, an authorized dealer for Boost Mobile (“Boost”), sold Boost prepaid wireless-service plans to customers, but did…