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On September 24, 2020, the Texas Court of Appeals upheld the Texas insurance premium tax on insurance policies for bales of cotton temporarily stored at Texas warehouses.  The court rejected the taxpayer’s arguments that: (1) the tax violated the Commerce Clause and the Import-Export Clause of the United States Constitution; and (2) the insurance at…

The Colorado Department of Revenue has determined that an information technology provider’s sale of its backup service, which allowed its customers to back up business applications, files, and systems, and also included the delivery of computer servers to customers’ locations, constituted a nontaxable service.  Although the Department “considered whether the placement of [the] servers constitut[ed]…

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts issued a private letter ruling concluding that several services provided to optometrists and ophthalmologists were subject to sales tax as data processing.  Specifically, the Comptroller determined that the taxpayer’s web-based software system, which doctors use to manage patient relationships, schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and communicate about treatment, is a…

In a recently issued revenue ruling, the Tennessee Department of Revenue determined that a taxpayer’s digital services provided to other businesses were taxable “specified digital products,” a broad term based on definitions (and subject to detailed operating rules) in the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Sellers of business-to-business digital services should review this ruling…

In a recently released letter ruling, the Georgia Department of Revenue concluded that charges for the electronic delivery of medical records, and services related to the management and processing of medical records, are not subject to sales and use tax, while charges for transferring medical records delivered on paper or another “tangible format” are subject…

The Ninth Circuit concluded that a plaintiff had standing to continue her lawsuit against a clothing company alleging that the company wrongly failed to pay interest on refunded Alaska sales taxes. After a related lawsuit was filed alleging that sales taxes were incorrectly collected, LuLaRoe, Inc. refunded the plaintiff $531.25 in sales tax charges. The…

The South Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed the Administrative Law Court’s holding that proceeds from a book retailer’s sales of book club memberships should have been included in the retailer’s “gross proceeds of sales” and subject to sales tax. The Court of Appeals concluded that South Carolina case law provides that the gross proceeds of…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the Board of Finance and Revenue’s (Board) order, in part, and determined that when a retailer’s receipt separately states the coupon presented and sufficiently identifies the item to which the coupon applies, a taxpayer is only liable for sales tax based on the price as reduced by the coupon…

Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court held that receipts from subscriptions to remote access software were subject to sales tax as taxable transfers of prewritten software.  Following a change in the law to tax sales of prewritten software regardless of medium of delivery, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue promulgated a regulation stating that such taxable sales include…

The Florida Department of Revenue issued a Technical Assistance Advisement concluding that an internet-based streaming video subscription service is subject to Florida’s communication services tax. The Taxpayer maintains a website where viewers can watch live or on-demand video of individuals (or, “Broadcasters”) playing video games, music or e-sports events. Among other things, the website provides…