One of the more interesting state tax issues we get to deal with as state and local tax practitioners involve questions in the sales tax area. One of the reasons is because the answer to every sales tax question is the same: “it depends.” State sales tax statutes have so many ins and outs, exemptions and exclusions, ifs, ands, ors, and buts that there rarely is a clear answer. And even if there is a clear answer, it often depends on the application of a variety of different facts and circumstances. This usually results in articles every year about the different tax consequences that can arise in silly circumstances, such as the taxability of bagels depending on whether or not they are sliced or not; candy bars being taxable based on whether or not they are in the candy or cookie aisle, etc.
But the other interesting aspect of sales tax is that it touches everybody: every business, every taxpayer, every industry. A couple of years ago, we started to learn this firsthand when a lot of my income tax clients in the Wall Street area started contacting me about sales tax issues. Sales tax on Wall Street? What can that be about?
As many of our clients and friends know, earlier this year Tim Noonan won the Gaied v. New York case in New York’s highest court.
Over the past several years, states have struggled to determine how to tax software and related services being provided “in the cloud.” New York is not alone in this effort, and it has taken a fairly aggressive position on the issue in a series of published rulings and technical memos. But recently, an administrative law judge rejected the state's efforts to tax certain services in the cloud, and the decision could have an effect on its overall positions and policies in the cloud context.
Read more about the decision and its possible implications in Tim's latest "Noonan's Notes ...
As many of our clients and friends know, earlier this year Tim Noonan won the Gaied v. New York case in New York’s highest court. In the past two weeks, Tim published two articles discussing the victory and its implications for the future.