The State and Local Tax Buzz

Final Administrative Guidance:   Last Monday, July 16, 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue ("the Department") issued its  final  directive, 12-4 , on the sales tax implications of Groupon type vouchers. (Applause please!) Ordinarily, a Department of Revenue's issuance of administrative guidance wouldn't necessarily warrant such fanfare, but in this case it's only taken the Department ten months ,  two working drafts,  and an  "about face" in the Department's position  to get to this final Directive. That's right, ten months ago, on September 16, 2011, the Department issued an initial Working Draft Directive (DD 11-XX, Application of Sales Tax to Sales and Redemption of Third Party Coupon) providing draft guidance on the sales tax implications upon the issuance of third party deal-of-the-day discount vouchers and the value on which sales tax should be charged.  I reported on this development in my 9/28/11 post, " Wondering How

Massachusetts Legislative Update:    Will Massachusetts residents soon be paying sales tax on their Amazon purchases?  Should Amazon  already be  collecting Massachusetts sales tax? If you've been following the media reports about how Amazon’s recent “expansion” in Massachusetts gives the company nexus, or how Massachusetts may soon be enacting an “Amazon Law”, then you may think that Amazon should either be collecting Massachusetts sales tax already or soon will be. But much of what has been reported is less than accurate! Now before I jump into clarifying Amazon’s recent activity in Massachusetts (and whether that activity creates nexus or not) and what proposed legislation in Massachusetts will  really  do, I’ll add that this story was of particular significance to me because I happen to be a Massachusetts based consultant.  And so, I’ve been closely following this development – and have read  one too many  stories that have reported less than accurate informat