The State and Local Tax Buzz

Last Friday, March 23 rd , I had an article published by the fine folks at Bloomberg BNA.  The article, “ State Tax Issues to Consider with ‘Groupons’ And Other Third-Party ‘Deal-of-the-Day’ Programs ” appeared in electronic media in the publisher’s State Tax Weekly Report .  The print version of the article is also scheduled to be published in the April 27th edition of the publisher's Tax Management - Multistate Tax Report .  If you’re a subscriber to the State Tax Weekly, you can access the article here .   If you’re a frequent visitor to The State and Local Tax “Buzz” , you've probably noticed that I’ve been closely following developments in the “Groupon-sales tax” arena and have authored several posts covering these developments.  This is an area in which I’m genuinely interested – which is why I jumped at the opportunity to write an expanded article when I was approached by one of Bloomberg BNA’s State Tax Law editors.  In the article I cover several aspects of deal-of

The following is a guest post by Diane Yetter , one of the nation's leading authorities on Sales & Use Taxation and founder of the Sales Tax Institute   (see end box for more about Diane). In this post, a follow-up to Diane's recent COST   presentation, “Taxing Software, Digital Goods, and the Cloud”, Diane discusses the inconsistencies in how states are treating these products and services and the challenges this presents.   We used to go to the bookstore to find a bestseller, the record store to buy a CD (or album if you are old enough to remember those!) and the computer store to buy the latest video game.  In those days, it was easy to determine the applicable sales tax for such purchases.  They were tangible goods and generally taxable at the location where we purchased them. Now those items are more frequently purchased as digital goods – we either download them to our electronic device of choice or they are hosted and we just access them and use them

State Legislative Updates:     Last week, I authored a post for the SalesTaxSupport.com blog . If you’re a frequent visitor to the State and Local Tax “Buzz” , you may already know that I'm the e-Commerce/Internet Sales Tax contributor for this excellent, on-line sales tax resource website. (See right side text box for more about my contributions to the SalesTaxSupport.com blog   and my “ Contributions to Other Blogs and Websites ” webpage for links to my SalesTaxSupport contributions. ) In last week’s post, “ State Amazon Laws – Update Recap (States Grab the Spotlight!) ”, I provided an update on the explosion of “Amazon" legislation that has been introduced in many states since the beginning of the year. All of a sudden it seems as though “Amazon” or other nexus expanding legislation is being introduced by states everywhere! But in some states, efforts by state legislatures to pass click-through/affiliate nexus laws has been thwarted almost as soon as legislation is in

On Wednesday, March 7 th , I’ll be sharing my thoughts and insights on “ 2011 Significant SALT Developments and Predictions for 2012” in a live, two-hour Q&A session on iShade . If you’re an iShade member, you've likely seen the Q&A announcement in the iShade bulletin, caught it on twitter (@iShade has been tweeting about the Q&A often!) or on another social media channel. If you’re not on iShade , you’re probably wondering what iShade is. In a nutshell, iShade is the Accounting Profession Online – a  free , on-line community where accountants from across the country and around the globe can gather, collaborate, interact and continue to develop themselves both personally and professionally. Not only am I an  iShade member, but my blog, The State and Local Tax “Buzz” , is one of the more than 70 accounting/finance/tax blogs on iShade.  (See my December 11, 2011 post, “ The State and Local Tax "Buzz" is now on iShade ” ). Recently I also became