Tax News

Top Story

Sales Tax Update - April 2025

by Michael T. Dillon, Esq., Dillon Tax Consulting LLC
4/26/2025

Texas Comptroller Adopts Changes to Data Processing Services

Effective April 2, 2025, the Texas Comptroller effected changes to Texas Administrative Code Rule 3.330, addressing the definition and sales tax treatment of data processing services, most specifically (1) refining what constitutes and does not constitute data processing services, and (2) adopting an exclusion for data processing that is sold for a single charge with another service if the data processing service (a) does not have a separate value and (b) is ancillary to the other service.  Data processing is defined as “the computerized entry, retrieval, search, compilation, manipulation, or storage ...

read more

Use & Occupancy Tax

Sales Tax Audits

Dillon Tax Consulting
10/16/2023

ARE YOU READY?

It’s no secret that states are running the most significant budget shortfalls in the Post-WWII era. As a remedy, they can either raise tax rates, increase the base, add more taxes, or heighten enforcement. Clearly the most pragmatic thing, and least politically problematic thing to do is heighten enforcement. And the ...

read more

The Quill ‘Physical Presence’ Standard – A “Perfect Storm” Brewing

Dillon Tax Consulting
3/15/2015

Ever since, and even before, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1992 decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, in which it affirmed the Commerce Clause ‘physical presence’ standard for sales tax nexus, Congress has continually grappled with the increasing sales tax revenue shortfalls and perceived unfair advantage that online and mail-order retailers have ...

read more

Seeking What You Need To Hear vs. Seeking What You Want To Hear

Dillon Tax Consulting
6/30/2014

Sometimes my job can be quite difficult. I don’t enjoy telling the client that they have nexus, and/or that they have sales tax exposure in a state that they should address as soon as possible. Trust me, I would much rather share the news with a client that everything they are doing is ...

read more

Maryland High Court Attributes Nexus To Out-of-State Affiliates Due To Lack Of ‘Economic Substance’, Not Based On Unitary Nexus

Dillon Tax Consulting
4/2/2014

On March 24, 2014, Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, upheld a finding of nexus against two Delaware affiliates of W.L. Gore & Associates, Ltd. (Gore), on the premise that the affiliates lacked any economic substance [ Gore Enterprise Holdings, Inc. v. Comptroller of the Treasury, Md. Ct. App., No 36 (March 24, 2014 ...

read more

Judge Spares Remote Sellers From Colorado Notice Requirements

Dillon Tax Consulting
4/2/2014

On February 18, 2014, a Colorado judge enjoined the Colorado Department of Revenue’s enforcement of the remote seller sales and use tax notification requirements enacted by the Colorado legislature in 2010. [Direct Marketing Association v. Dep't of Revenue et al.; District Court, City and County of Denver, Case No. 13CV34855 (2/18/14 ...

read more

State Efforts to Define “Cloud Computing” Spell Opportunity for Taxpayers

Dillon Tax Consulting
11/27/2013

A recent Massachusetts letter ruling refines its definition of cloud computing, a rapidly evolving computer medium that includes, among other things, the Internet provision of Software As a Service (SAaS), Infrastructure As a Service (IAaS), and Platforms As a Service (PAaS). SAaS - the most common form of cloud computing – involves the provision of access to ...

read more

Sales Tax

Dillon Tax Consulting
10/16/2013

YOU DON’T KNOW THAT YOU DON’T KNOW

When I am referred in to a new client, the client and I go through a set of diagnostic questions designed to help us evaluate the company’s taxable presence, current sales tax compliance, and historical sales tax exposure. Often times, as I begin asking the ...

read more