Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
In Det. No. 23-0004, 45 WTD 013 (2026), the Washington Department of Revenue (DOR) concluded that professional implementation services and associated travel reimbursements are subject to retail sales tax when provided exclusively in connection with a Digital Automated Service (DAS).
The taxpayer was a software provider that offered cloud-based solutions to state and local…
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…
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…
In Guild Mortgage Company v. Washington Department of Revenue, the Washington Board of Tax Appeals considered whether certain fees associated with mortgage sales – guaranty fees, loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs), and lender credits – should be included in the taxpayer’s gross income for purposes of the state’s business and occupation (B&O) tax.
The taxpayer…
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 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 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…
On January 29, 2025, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that a telecommunications company’s “non-voice” private line services were subject to the state’s gross receipts tax (GRT). The taxpayer described its services as offering “a dedicated, uninterrupted communications channel” by which their customers could “securely … and continuously transport voice, video and/or data as packets…
A content delivery network (CDN) services provider appealed the Department’s assessment of retail sales tax in which the Department determined that the taxpayer’s CDN services were “digital automated services” subject to the retailing B&O tax and retail sales tax. The taxpayer disagreed, noting that its CDN is a “backbone” component of the internet that its…
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that gross receipts from a taxpayer’s services performed out-of-state had situs with Ohio for purposes of the state’s commercial activity tax (CAT) because the benefit of the services was received in Ohio. The taxpayer provided dialysis services to patients in Ohio. To support the dialysis business, the taxpayer and…
