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 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…
Tennessee ruled that the temporary download of software for demonstration purposes and immediate removal does not constitute an installation of computer software that is subject to sales tax. View the full ruling here.
By Zachary Atkins and Prentiss Willson
The Missouri Department of Revenue issued a letter ruling in which it determined that the sale or rental of streaming video content is not subject to Missouri sales or use tax. The service in question allowed customers to purchase or rent video content and to stream the content through…
By Derek Takehara and Andrew Appleby
The Oklahoma Tax Commission issued three Letter Rulings addressing the digital economy. First, the Commission ruled that receipts from sales of digital photos, videos and designs delivered via the Internet are not subject to sales tax when no tangible item is conveyed. The Commission also ruled that charges for…
By Sahang-Hee Hahn and Timothy Gustafson
Less than two months after Massachusetts enacted a tax on computer design and software services (Tech Tax), the legislation was repealed with the passage of House Bill (HB) 3662 (for Sutherland’s previous coverage of this development, click here). The Tech Tax expanded Massachusetts’s sales and use tax…
By Maria Todorova and Prentiss Willson
The Minnesota Tax Court held that computer software consulting and implementation services were not subject to sales tax in Minnesota. The taxpayer, SAP Retail, Inc., licensed enterprise resource planning software. It also provided consultation and implementation services to configure the software to a customer’s particular business activities. The court…
By Jessica Kerner and Timothy Gustafson
The Tennessee Department of Revenue determined in a Letter Ruling that a taxpayer’s sale of remote storage services and virtual computing services are not subject to Tennessee sales or use tax where the data centers and servers used to provide such services are located outside the state. The…
By Kathryn Pittman and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Department of Revenue determined that a taxpayer providing online backup and restoration services was subject to Arizona’s transaction privilege tax (TPT) after concluding that the receipts from such services were taxable as rentals of prewritten software. The taxpayer provided services that automatically backed up and restored files. As…
