Last year, the Texas Comptroller proposed a regulation that affects how local sales tax is allocated for online sales, to become effective October 1, 2021. While Texas generally uses origin-based sourcing, under the new rule, online sales will generally be sourced to the destination of the sale. Local governments protested these amendments, arguing that
sales tax
Kentucky enacts sales tax exemptions for cryptocurrency mining facilities
By Jonathan Feldman, Alla Raykin & Jeremy Gove on
Posted in Digital Economy
Effective July 1, 2021, Kentucky has enacted sales tax and utility gross receipts exemptions for certain transactions involving the commercial mining of cryptocurrency. The Kentucky DOR explained the two recently enacted bills here. HB 230 exempts the sale or purchase of electricity used or consumed in the commercial mining of cryptocurrency from sales tax and…
North Carolina Department of Revenue provides guidance regarding the provision of certain digital property
By Jonathan Feldman, Chris Lee & Jeremy Gove on
Posted in Digital Economy
On May 24, 2021, the North Carolina Department of Revenue published Private Letter Ruling No. SUPLR 2021-0019 (dated April 29, 2021). The taxpayer is a North Carolina based company that provides subscriptions to information hosted in the cloud which its customers access through a web portal in exchange for a subscription fee. The industry-specific information…
California’s attempt to extend transfer pricing to sales tax
By Eric Tresh, Timothy Gustafson & Elizabeth Cha on
Posted in California, In the News
Sales taxes are imposed by all but five states. While the types of sales that are subject to tax vary significantly by state, virtually all sales tax states look to the actual consideration paid by the buyer to the seller to determine the sales price. Despite this long-standing and almost uniform measure of the sales…
Transfer pricing and its effects on state tax
By Chris Lee & Justin Brown on
Posted in Podcast
In this episode of the SALT Shaker Podcast, host and Associate Chris Lee is joined by Associate Justin Brown to discuss transfer pricing and how it affects state tax and in particular how states may use transfer pricing or other theories to make adjustments to sales tax. Recently, some jurisdictions have challenged sales tax on…
New York State Advisory Opinion Finds IT Support Services Not Subject to Sales Tax
By Eric Coffill & Annie Rothschild on
Posted in New York
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance released an advisory opinion finding the Petitioner’s fee paid for IT support services was not subject to sales and use tax because the only taxable component of the services was delivered to the Petitioner outside of New York. The Petitioner hired a New York-based company to…
SALT Policy Picks: Sales Tax Base Expansion Is Not the Answer
By Nikki Dobay on
Posted in In the News
This year, Partner Nikki Dobay launched a new column for Tax Notes entitled “SALT Policy Picks,” which provides Nikki’s reflections on state and local tax policy and legislative updates.
In one of her initial columns, Nikki argues that now is not the time for states to consider sales tax base expansion, discussing specifically that…
New York Department of Taxation finds that IT support service was not subject to sales tax
By Jonathan Feldman & Chris Lee on
Posted in Digital Economy, New York
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued an advisory opinion determining that the fee paid for an information technology support service was not subject to sales and use tax because the taxable component of the service was delivered outside of New York. The taxpayer provided investment advice to its customers and as…
New York Tax Department concludes online webhosting product not subject to sales tax
By Jonathan Feldman, Charles Capouet & Chris Lee on
Posted in Digital Economy, New York
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued an advisory opinion, concluding that a taxpayer’s charges for its online webhosting solution were not subject to sales tax. The customers pay an annual fee for their events (audio and video meetings, conferences, webinars and live presentations) to be hosted and maintained and also…
For Your Eyes Only: New York Advises that Database Service is not Subject to Sales Tax
By Ted Friedman & Chris Lee on
Posted in New York
The New York Commissioner of Taxation and Finance issued an Advisory Opinion explaining that a petitioner’s service that allows customers to access its database and run reports of the customers’ data is not subject to sales tax. The petitioner enters into agreements with customers to maintain their fleet of vehicles, and the petitioner compiles data…