November 09, 2015 5 min read
preferential tax treatment preferential tax treatment Many states and cities offer preferential tax treatment to certain types of businesses. This often includes a temporary exemption from collecting sales and use taxes. Recently the District of Columbia successfully opposed an effort by a local television station to qualify for such a
Read More October 29, 2015 5 min read
sales tax returns sales tax returns The New York Attorney General’s office recently won a major procedural victory in a four-year-old lawsuit accusing Sprint Nextel of filing false sales tax returns. New York’s highest court ruled state law “unambiguously” requires collection of sales tax on the full price flat-rate wireless
Read More October 20, 2015 5 min read
AT&T to BOE “Can you hear me NOW?” California’s 25 million sales tax appeal denied On October 8, a California appeals court rejected the state’s effort to collect an additional $25 million in sales taxes on specialized computer equipment used by telephone and data networks. This was not the first
Read More September 30, 2015 5 min read
Exemption certificates Do you know the validity period of your exemption certificates? Did you know that each state treats them differently and that you should review them periodically to make sure they are still good? It is a good business practice to periodically review exemption certificates
Read More September 29, 2015 4 min read
Many states and localities have recently raised sales taxes in response to mounting budget deficits. But no U.S. jurisdiction has taken such drastic measures as Puerto Rico, which not only increased its sales tax rate by nearly 65% this year – it plans to replace the sales tax altogether with a value added tax (VAT).
Read More September 23, 2015 5 min read
Voters in San Mateo, a city in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, will decide in November whether to retain a 0.25% sales and use a tax approved in a prior referendum six years ago. If adopted, “Measure S” would extend the local tax until March 2048.
Read More September 14, 2015 5 min read
Fate of community improvement They say one vote can make a difference. That is especially true when there is only one person voting in an election. Property owners in the Business Loop 70 section of Columbia, Missouri, learned that lesson the hard way as their efforts to impose a half-cent
Read More August 31, 2015 5 min read
Online travel companies (OTCs) faced another setback last month as the District of Columbia’s highest court held Expedia and its competitors owed back sales taxes dating to 1998 on their “retail margins” for hotel rooms sold in the district. Washington, D.C. assesses a 14.5% sales tax on the “gross receipts”
Read More August 24, 2015 5 min read
Most states collect no sales tax on groceries, meaning food purchased for home preparation and consumption is usually tax exempt. According to the Federation of Tax Administrators, six states currently tax groceries at a lower rate than the general state sales tax. Seven other states charge their full rate of sales
Read More August 24, 2015 5 min read
In November 2013, voters in the city of Modesto, California, defeated a proposed 1% increase in the local sales tax by just 507 votes. Undeterred by this narrow defeat, Modesto’s mayor and city council will again ask voters to approve a local sales tax increase on this November’s ballot, albeit only 0.5% this time.
Read More August 24, 2015 5 min read
tax refund repayment tax refund repayment The only thing worse than owing sales tax is having to repay the same sales tax a second time. Several Minnesota electric cooperatives faced this scenario recently when the state’s Commissioner of Revenue said it “erroneously” provided a sales tax refund on taxes paid on
Read More July 31, 2015 5 min read
Illinois sales tax Illinois sales tax Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner won election last year on a platform of reducing the tax and regulatory burden on business. Yet he has also proposed what would be the nation’s only sales tax on business advertising. In an effort to “modernize” the Illinois sales tax
Read More
