Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Stephanie Do and Andrew Appleby
The Texas Comptroller determined that an integrated circuit manufacturer’s purchases of software tools used to design and test the software code embedded in its semiconductor chips did not qualify for the manufacturing exemption for sales and use tax purposes. For Texas’s manufacturing exemption, software manufacturing begins with software design…
By Derek Takehara and Andrew Appleby
The Virginia Tax Commissioner issued a taxpayer-favorable ruling addressing Virginia sales and use tax on (1) computer software sold to manufacturers and (2) cloud computing services. The Commissioner determined that Virginia’s manufacturing exemption can apply to sales of computer software if the software is used directly in the manufacturer’s…
By Zachary Atkins and Pilar Mata
A California Court of Appeal held that a mobile telecommunications service provider could pursue refund actions against local taxing authorities in California without first having to refund the disputed taxes to its customers. Pursuant to a settlement agreement, New Cingular, the provider, filed refund claims against 132 California cities…
By Nicole Boutros and Pilar Mata
The Texas Comptroller determined that a taxpayer’s “digitizing” services provided to oil and gas industry clients were taxable data processing services for Texas sales and use tax purposes. The services at issue consisted of taking well log data from the client; analyzing, manipulating and interpreting such data; and providing…
By Zachary Atkins and Timothy Gustafson
The New Jersey Tax Court held that a mobile telecommunications service provider was not required to reimburse its customers before seeking a $32 million refund of erroneously collected sales tax. As part of a federal court-approved 2010 settlement agreement involving AT&T Mobility and its subsidiaries and affiliates, New…
By Maria Todorova and Andrew Appleby
In a Technical Memorandum, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance explained the impact of the holding in Echostar, which addressed the New York sales and use tax resale exclusion for certain purchases made by satellite and cable television service providers. In Echostar, the…
By Kathryn Pittman and Andrew Appleby
The Ohio Tax Commissioner determined that billing and collection services were nontaxable debt collection services rather than taxable automatic data processing services. The taxpayer provided a variety of billing and collection services to physicians, health care practitioners and other medical personnel. These services included billing patients and performing collection-related…
By Ted Friedman and Timothy Gustafson
The Missouri Department of Revenue determined that clients of a moving company were not subject to sales tax on boxes provided by the company and used to move the clients’ belongings. As part of the company’s moving services, it provided boxes for clients to pack their belongings. Any boxes…
By Zachary Atkins and Andrew Appleby
The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, affirmed a 2013 trial court ruling denying Sprint Nextel Corporation’s motion to dismiss the attorney general’s False Claims Act complaint. In a slip opinion, the Appellate Division concluded that N.Y. Tax Law § 1105(b)(2), which the state attorney general contends imposes tax…
By Sahang-Hee Hahn and Pilar Mata
The Texas Comptroller has amended its regulation governing the sales tax treatment of cable television services. The revised regulation defines for the first time several terms related to the cable television services industry; adopts a destination-based sourcing rule for intrastate sales of streaming video; and taxes “bundled cable services.&rdquo…
