After losing at trial, the Maine State Tax Assessor is now arguing to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court that sales tax applies to carrier subsidies received by Apple on its sales of iPhones bundled with service contracts.  During the years in issue,... Read More

In a pending precedential decision, the California Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) held that the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) is bound to follow its own regulation and could not rely on its audit manual to disregard that regulatory... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

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, a... Read More

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... Read More

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... Read More

The Colorado Court of Appeals held that the City of Aurora correctly levied use tax on American Multi-Cinema, Inc.’s (AMC’s) license agreements with film distributors. The court concluded that the true object of the arrangement was to obtain tangible... Read More

In a recent private letter ruling, the South Carolina Department of Revenue held that software subscription services are tangible personal property subject to sales and use taxes. A software company that provides a cloud-based business management and... Read More

On October 22, 2019, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) held that an insurance company was entitled to a refund of sales tax paid on its purchase of CAT-5 and CAT-6 communication cabling for internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) installed... Read More