An Alternative to an Amazon Tax Getting Attention in Florida

In what will probably be the first in a line of states to do so, Florida’s lawmakers are considering an alternative to Amazon Tax-type laws to capture the often lost sales and use tax on Internet transactions by hiring a “software development company to create a computer program that would automatically calculate sales taxes on [...]

Wyoming to Tax “Specified” Digital Products in Permanent Use

Effective July 1, 2010, a new law in Wyoming (Ch. 64, H.B. 29, Laws 2010) imposes sales and use tax on “specified” digital products that are “permanently” used, possessed, and controlled by the purchaser, at the time that purchaser stores, uses, or consumes these products.  This legislative move is geared towards catching in the taxability [...]

The Online Hotel Room Tax Battle Rages In Florida and Kentucky

Two federal courts recently (and only seemingly, I would contend) ruled on the side of online travel companies, producing somewhat surprising results in a long line of similar cases we followed throughout 2009 (see here, here, here, here, and here).  One, a case brought to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, by Monroe [...]

The Sales Tax Buzz Top 10 Sales & Use Tax Have-to-Know Developments of 2009

1. More States Go the Way of SST (and the SST finally updates its website to make it far closer to being user friendly than ever before, see here) 2.  The Main Street Fairness Act Is Gaining Momentum (see here)  3.  New York Prevails Over Amazon (thus far) & The New York Times Featured a [...]

The Sales Tax Buzz Top 10 Sales & Use Tax Legislative Developments of 2009

2009 was rife with legislative changes in terms of nexus, e-commerce taxation, sales tax holidays, and other key areas, so to help readers make a little sense of all of this activity, I put together the Sales Tax Buzz Top 10 Sales & Use Tax Legislative Developments of 2009 List, as well as a little [...]

Amazon.com & other online retailers costing states $7B a year?

In these stormy days of the ongoing saga between Amazon.com and a number of states (see here, here, here, and here), the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policies Priorities released a riveting report this week concluding, among other findings, that Amazon’s arguments against collecting sales taxes do not withstand scrutiny – costing states up to [...]

Florida’s AG Files Against Expedia & Orbitz for Hotel Sales Taxes

Are Expedia and Orbitz paying the appropriate amount of sales taxes to the State of Florida for online-purchased hotel room rentals? Not according to Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum, who recently filed suit in Tallahassee for up to hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes. In a line of online travel cases that essentially [...]

NYC Speaks to the Online Hotel Booking Issue

In ongoing Sales Tax Buzz coverage of online hotel room booking services (see here, here, here, and here), New York City’s Department of Finance recently weighed in on the issue in a first memorandum (a second is scheduled to follow later this month) addressing the recently revised rules surrounding hotel room occupancy tax there. Effective [...]

Nexus Becoming Ever-Trickier to Determine

Based on a Massachusetts case, U.S. Supreme Court leaves open the chance for “substantial nexus” without physical presence, for brick-and-mortar and Internet companies alike Are you a business incorporated in State A and conduct business in State B? If so, you had better tune in to what’s going on in the courts in terms of [...]

Amazon, Amazon, Amazon! And Blue Nile . . . and Now Overstock!

June 30, 2009: Seattle *** Updated July 1, 2009 *** ***Updated July 29, 2009*** see below Amazon Pulls the Plug on Hawaii, Rhode Island Affiliates, Strengthening Its Stance for a More Cohesive Internet Tax Scheme What started with a pull out from its online affiliate system in North Carolina, Amazon.com has now cut ties with [...]

Amazon.com Affiliates in N. Carolina = No More!

June 26, 2009: Seattle Amazon.com severs all ties with business, marketing affiliates in North Carolina There’s huge news here in Seattle that reverberates all across the e-commerce universe: Seattle-based Amazon.com notified its North Carolina business affiliates just last night that it will end all ties, effective today, to avoid collecting and remitting sales taxes in [...]

Digital download tax hits home, my home.

The inevitable happened. I’ve been spending so much time thinking and even daring to write about tax on digital downloads that I might have attracted it right into my own little world. Yesterday, I received one of the most heart wrenching emails a habitual downloader can receive. The subject line read “New Rhapsody Tax Policy” [...]