New York State Tax Rulings
Free plain-English summaries of state tax letter rulings and advisory opinions issued in New York, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Are an online auction site's seller listing fees and buyer registration fees subject to sales tax?
No. Sellers' registration and per-item listing fees are charges for advertising their goods on the website -- nontaxable advertising services. Buyers' registration fees aren't taxable either: unlike a…
Are in-vehicle telematics service plans subject to sales tax, including the extra 5% tax on aural information services?
They're taxable, but mostly not at the extra 5% rate. The bundled safety plans (crash response, emergency, stolen-vehicle, roadside, diagnostics, door unlock, etc.) are taxable as protective/detective…
Are a translation company's receipts for document, telephone, and on-site translation subject to sales tax?
No. Translation is a professional service that isn't one of the services New York's sales tax lists, so receipts for translating documents (delivered electronically), real-time telephone translation, …
Are a web service provider's advertising, listing, support-database, and ASP fees subject to New York sales tax?
It varies by service. Banner ads, web listing/catalogue advertising fees for retailers and for residential leasing agents/owners, and separately stated photo setup fees are nontaxable advertising serv…
Are a publisher's payments to freelance editors who compile e-newsletter content subject to sales tax?
Yes. The independent-contractor editors compile and aggregate content from multiple trade publications and write headlines and summaries -- that's a taxable information service under Tax Law 1105(c)(1…
My company sells subscription reports built from a shared database of evaluator input about my customers — are those subscription fees a taxable information service in New York?
Taxable. A web-based subscription service's fees for evaluation reports on investment broker dealers are a taxable information service under Tax Law §1105(c)(1), because the reports are built from a c…
My company provides automated voice-calling services to airlines, banks, and other businesses using proprietary software we keep entirely in-house — is our calling-service fee or our own software subject to New York sales or use tax?
Not taxable. An automated voice-message provider's fees for placing calls to customer-designated recipients aren't subject to New York sales tax, because the service isn't among the enumerated taxable…
My company retrieves and delivers copies of individual patients' confidential medical records to requestors on behalf of medical facilities — is that record-retrieval fee subject to New York sales tax?
Untaxed. Fees for retrieving and furnishing an individual's own specifically identified, confidential medical or insurance records to an authorized requestor are not a taxable information service or s…
My platform helps buyers and sellers complete two types of syndicated loan trades over the Internet, sometimes letting the seller input their own data directly instead of us doing it — is either product a taxable information service or software sale in New York?
Split result. Neither of a financial platform's two loan-settlement products is a taxable information service, because converting a subscriber's own data into contract form isn't furnishing new inform…
My company provides automated voice-calling services to airlines, banks, and other businesses using proprietary software we keep entirely in-house — is our calling-service fee or our own software subject to New York sales or use tax?
Not taxable. An automated voice-message provider's fees for placing calls to customer-designated recipients aren't subject to New York sales tax, because the service isn't among the enumerated taxable…
My regulatory-compliance and investigative firm offers 15 different service lines (AML, OFAC, fraud reviews, forensic technology, background checks, training, and more) — which of these count as taxable 'detective services' in New York, and which are untaxed advisory work?
Split by activity, not by service line. A regulatory-compliance firm's advice-and-training work (reviewing policies, developing programs, training staff) is untaxed consulting, but the moment the firm…
We license IT and business-skills e-learning courseware, a searchable reference library, an optional mentoring add-on, and live instructor-led virtual classroom sessions — which of these are subject to New York sales tax, and how do we source tax when our customers' employees are spread across multiple states?
Split result. SkillSoft's hosted e-learning courseware is taxable prewritten software (license fees taxed based on where each licensed user is located, even without any download), its Referenceware se…
We sell interactive online e-learning courses, plus separate add-on charges for a reference library, a live mentoring service, and a course-planning consultation — which of these are subject to New York sales tax?
Mixed result. Highly interactive online e-learning courses are taxable as a sale of prewritten computer software (whether accessed online or downloaded), and a reference-library add-on is a taxable in…
My client's records-retrieval business gets authorized requesters copies of their own confidential medical records, tax returns, or Social Security statements from the actual custodians -- are those retrieval fees subject to New York sales tax?
Not taxable, with one exception. A records-retrieval company's fees for obtaining and delivering an individual's own specifically-identified confidential medical, tax, or Social Security records -- us…
I sell customized emergency-preparedness plans, training videos, brochures, and live drills to schools and businesses -- which parts of my invoice owe New York sales tax?
It depends on what's billed separately. New York taxes AK Productions' physical products -- training videos on tape or disc, brochures, evacuation maps, floor plan diagrams, and emergency signage -- a…
I electronically process physicians' medical insurance claims and arrange printing and mailing of patient invoices for a fee -- is that a taxable New York information service?
Not taxable. New York held that a health-IT vendor's charges to physicians for electronically submitting patient billing data to insurance companies to file claims, facilitating insurer payments, and …
Does New York sales tax apply to an expert-network company's subscription charges for one-on-one phone consultations with industry experts, custom written research reports, and invitation-only seminars?
No, as long as the oral consultations and written reports are based on each consultant's own personal knowledge and experience rather than a shared database or recycled prior reports -- these are nont…
Is a daily investment-analysis newsletter about corporate bonds, delivered by email, fax, or hard copy on a subscription basis, exempt from sales tax as a periodical?
Yes. The daily fixed-income-market newsletter qualifies as an exempt periodical because it's published regularly with varied bylined articles and is available to the public by subscription, and its el…
Can a financial data provider buy servers and routers tax-exempt as 'purchases for resale' when it separately charges customers an additional fee to use that equipment alongside its data-feed service?
Yes. Because the equipment is optional, not required to access the underlying data service, and separately and reasonably billed, providing it for an extra fee is a genuine equipment rental to the cus…
Does a subscription investment-analysis publication qualify for New York's tax exemption for periodicals, in both its hardcopy and electronic versions?
The hardcopy version qualifies as an exempt periodical because it's published quarterly, isn't a book, has continuity of subject and format, and is available to any subscriber, but the electronic vers…
Does a law firm owe sales tax on a record-retrieval service's fees for obtaining its clients' own confidential medical and financial records?
A record-retrieval service's fees for obtaining copies of a specific client's own confidential medical, psychological, or financial records aren't taxable information or detective services, because th…
Which of a for-profit online executive-education company's Internet courses, CD-ROM materials, digitized collections, demo videos, and derivative products are subject to New York sales tax?
A for-profit online certificate program delivered purely through the Internet (even with free welcome packages, academic support, or incidental CD-ROM/textbook materials) isn't subject to sales tax as…
Does an environmental drilling company owe sales tax on its hydrogeologic site reports and the temporary groundwater monitoring wells it installs to prepare them?
An environmental drilling company's confidential hydrogeologic site-condition reports aren't subject to sales tax because report-writing isn't an enumerated taxable service, and it doesn't have to col…
Are charges for a company's service of retrieving individual police accident reports from local police departments and delivering copies to an auto insurer subject to New York sales tax?
Yes. A company that retrieves individual copies of police accident reports from local police departments (one report at a time, by request) and delivers them to an insurance company is providing a tax…
Are an HR-outsourcing company's fees for administering health/welfare benefits, retirement plans, COBRA/flex spending, and pre-employment background checks subject to New York sales tax?
Mostly no, with one exception. Start-up and ongoing charges for Health and Welfare Administration, Retirement Services Administration, and COBRA/Flex Spending Account Administration are nontaxable — t…
Are a securities self-regulatory organization's mandatory bond-transaction reporting fees and its market-data subscription fees both taxable in New York, or just one of them?
Only the market-data fees are taxable. A securities self-regulatory organization's basic fees for members to satisfy their federally mandated corporate-bond transaction reporting (System Fees, Transac…
When is a seller required to collect New York sales tax on renting or licensing a mailing list to a business or a college?
It depends on what the buyer does with the list and who the buyer is. Renting a mailing list is a taxable sale by default unless the buyer gives the seller a valid exemption document within 90 days. A…
Is a company's fee for a phone-in employee time-and-attendance monitoring service subject to New York sales tax, and does the company owe tax on the telephone service it buys to run it?
No on the service fee — a phone-in employee time-and-attendance tracking service isn't sales-taxable because it isn't a taxable telephone answering service (taking messages is only incidental to it) a…
Are a physician support company's per-message voice-mail lab-results service and its after-hours nurse triage-call service subject to New York sales tax?
Split result. The lab-results voice-messaging service — where a physician calls in and records a message a patient later retrieves by PIN — is a taxable telephone/voice-mail service, because every par…
Does an insurance-industry auditing company owe New York sales tax on its charges to insurance carriers for premium audits, underwriting surveys, and government-mandated site inspections?
No, not generally. Premium audits (which are like payroll/bookkeeping review) and most underwriting and government-compliance property surveys are not taxable, because the reports either aren't the en…
Is a company's fee for subscription access to an Internet-filtering system — where the filtering software and a website-category database are downloaded onto the client's own server rather than sold as a disk or physical product — subject to New York sales tax as prewritten software?
Yes. Even though the company describes its offering as a 'filtering service,' the actual work of filtering employees' Internet access is performed entirely by software and a database that are download…
Are subscription fees a company charges health plans and hospitals to access its online database of physician credentialing information taxable as an information service, even though the underlying data comes from each physician individually?
Yes. Even though each physician's credentialing data starts out as that individual's own information, once a company collects it into a shared database and sells subscription access to multiple health…
Which of a research-and-advisory firm's various services — subscription research, white papers, reprints, teleforums, in-person presentations, and strategic consulting — are subject to New York sales tax when delivered to a customer in New York?
It splits by service. The subscription 'Continuous Advisory Service' (research notes and access to the online research library, shared identically with many clients) is a taxable information service, …
How should an out-of-state provider of password-based online database access allocate its taxable receipts between New York and out-of-state customers when it bills a New York address but can't track exactly where each password-holder is physically located?
New York sales tax is a 'destination tax,' so only the portion of an online database service actually accessed by users physically located in New York is taxable — but the provider can't use Form ST-1…
Is a teleservices firm's purchase of telephone-number verification and correction services — which append or fix phone numbers on the firm's own customer lists — taxable as an information service?
Yes, taxable. Even though the corrected phone numbers are matched to the specific individual names on the teleservices firm's own list, the underlying source is presumably a shared database (like phon…
Is selling music downloads delivered electronically over the Internet subject to New York sales tax, either as a sale of tangible personal property, a taxable information service, or a taxable entertainment service?
No, on all three theories. Digitized music delivered electronically over the Internet and stored on a customer's own hard drive is a sale of intangible property, not taxable tangible personal property…
Is a service that collects driving-complaint calls and reports them to the vehicle owner subject to New York sales tax?
No. A service that collects driving-complaint calls through a toll-free number and reports them only to the individual subscriber (never incorporated into reports shared with others) qualifies as exem…
Are data-processing, remote-access, and information-storage billing services subject to New York sales tax when the resulting data isn't shared with other customers?
No. Billing and customer-care data processing, remote access, management reports, and information storage aren't taxable information services when the processed data belongs to and is reported back on…
Does a nonprofit news cooperative owe sales tax on the information services it buys for its members, or on production equipment and utilities it provides at member newspapers?
No, mostly. Because a nonprofit news cooperative's information-service purchases (like stock quotes and weather data) are used by its member newspapers and broadcasters in the collection and dissemina…
Is an advance payment under a prepaid annual services plan taxable when received, or only when the customer actually uses a taxable service?
The advance payment itself isn't taxed when received. Under an Annual Discount Plan where a customer prepays for a bucket of services to be drawn down over the year, sales tax is triggered only when t…
Are fees for an electronic B2B catalog platform, EDI document exchange, and inventory-replenishment forecasting subject to New York sales tax?
It varies by service: fees for an electronic wholesaler catalog platform and for inventory-replenishment forecasting aren't taxable, but fees for transmitting EDI business documents between trading pa…
Is an internet lead-generation company's sale of custom prospect reports to its clients subject to New York sales tax?
No -- "X"'s custom monthly reports of website-generated sales leads, delivered electronically or by mail to each client and billed per lead, aren't subject to sales tax, because each report is persona…
Is a company's telephone verification of a mortgage applicant's job, income and landlord references a taxable investigation service under New York sales tax?
No -- a company's mortgage loan verification service, which consists of telephone interviews confirming a specific applicant's employment, income and other facts at the time of the loan application, i…
Is a temporary staffing agency's key-entry data-entry work, performed at a client's own facility using the client's own computer system, subject to New York sales tax?
No -- charges from a temporary staffing agency for its temps' key-entry of manual records (time cards, C.O.D. stubs, package pick-up records) into a client's own computer system, at the client's own l…
New York Advisory Opinion TSB-A-96(16)S: Is a monthly $25 administrative fee that an information-services company charges customers who choose to pay for their information units as-used (rather than a lump annual prepayment) subject to New York sales tax?
Taxable. Dun & Bradstreet sells credit and market information services subject to sales tax under Tax Law § 1105(c)(1), and is registered to collect and remit that tax. Historically customers paid a s…
New York Advisory Opinion TSB-A-96(4)S: Are a company's "stock watch" and "NOMINEX" services -- which identify a client's beneficial stockholders and monitor changes in stock ownership -- excluded from New York sales tax as personal/individual information not incorporated into reports for other clients?
Not taxable, under the personal/individual information exclusion. Kissel-Blake, Inc. offers two services to corporate clients trying to identify their own beneficial stockholders: the "stock watch ser…
New York Advisory Opinion TSB-A-96(3)S: Is a proxy solicitation firm's confidential "stock watch service," which identifies a client's individual shareholders and debtholders through investigative research, excluded from New York sales tax as personal information not shared with other clients?
Not taxable, under the personal/individual information exclusion -- the same result as the companion Kissel-Blake ruling issued the same day. Morrow & Co., Inc. provides proxy solicitation and stockho…
New York Advisory Opinion TSB-A-95(33)S: Is a company's charge for creating and running Internet advertisements -- "Virtual Storefronts" displaying a client's products -- subject to New York sales tax?
Not taxable, as long as Petitioner isn't also selling tangible personal property. Mike Levy's company, Cyberactive, sets up "Virtual Storefronts" for client companies on the Internet, creating and run…
Does a business owe sales tax on what it pays a service like Telecredit for guaranteeing the funds on its customers' checks?
It depends on exactly what's being purchased. A pure check-guarantee service (the guarantor replaces funds on a bad check) is NOT a taxable service and isn't subject to sales tax. But if the service a…
Is a certified sonographer's fee for a veterinary ultrasound exam -- including the written report, video tape, and thermal prints she gives the client -- subject to New York sales tax?
No, as long as she's selling a personal written report (impression) that isn't and can't be reused in reports to other clients -- that's an exempt 'personal or individual' information sale. But if she…
Is a bank-account verification service -- where subscribers call in or log on to check whether an applicant's prior checking account was closed for cause -- a taxable information service, even though each answer is about one specific applicant?
Yes, taxable. Even though each inquiry is 'tailored' to one specific applicant, the answer is pulled from the same shared database used to answer every subscriber's inquiries -- so it isn't 'personal …
Is the fee a firm pays a third-party mainframe host to store and let it access its own previously-purchased databases -- with no hardware transferred -- a taxable information service or a taxable computer-timeshare rental?
Neither -- the flat monthly fee is untaxed. There's no transfer of possession of the host's computer (so it's not a taxable rental), and since the host is just storing and serving back the customer's …
Is a real-estate document-archiving firm's fee for retrieving, scanning, cataloging, storing, and reproducing building-permit and related documents subject to sales tax, and are its computers exempt production equipment?
Reproduced documents (scanning, maintenance fees, and reproductions delivered back to the subscriber) are taxable as a sale of tangible personal property -- it's data CONVERSION (paper to digital), no…
Is a marketing consulting firm's fee -- covering sales-data analysis, purchased-data analysis, written marketing plans, and specific written recommendations for a client -- subject to New York sales tax?
No. The written reports are exempt personal/individual information since each report relates specifically to one client and isn't derived from a shared database or reused in other clients' reports, an…
Are fees for zebra mussel monitoring services -- sampling a customer's water system and providing a written analysis report -- subject to New York sales tax, even though the reports are personal to each customer and not shared with others?
Yes -- even though the monitoring reports are personal and individual to each customer (which would normally exempt a pure information service), the monitoring itself is treated as a taxable diagnosti…
Are fees charged to advertisers for typesetting, printing, packing, and hanging their door-to-door flyers subject to sales tax as an information service, or excluded as an advertising service?
The fees charged to clients are excluded from tax as an advertising service, not a taxable sale of tangible personal property or information service -- but because the business is providing a service …
Is a customer-satisfaction survey consulting business's fee for developing surveys, analyzing data, and delivering findings reports subject to New York sales tax as an information service?
It's an information service, but it escapes tax under the personal-information exclusion -- as long as each client's report stays unique to that client's own facility and isn't substantially folded in…
Are a fleet-management company's personal-mileage and vehicle-expense reports, prepared for individual corporate clients from their own data, subject to New York sales tax as an information service?
No -- because each report is built entirely from a single client's own vehicle/mileage data and covers only that client's own fleet, it counts as personal and individual information excluded from the …
Is a matchmaking/dating service, where a customer pays for an interview and is then mailed a match's name and phone number based on comparison with other interviewees' records, subject to New York sales tax?
Yes -- collecting and analyzing interviewees' information and furnishing customers with a match's name and phone number is a taxable 'information service,' so the fee charged for this dating service i…
Is a process-serving business's court-record research, photocopying, faxing, and delivery of legal documents subject to New York sales tax?
Process serving itself is not taxable, and neither are pickup, filing, and delivery of receipted copies or affidavits performed as part of process serving. But faxing copies of court documents to clie…
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These are official tax letter rulings and advisory opinions issued by New York's revenue authority in response to questions from specific taxpayers about how the tax law applies to their facts. A ruling is binding on the department only for the taxpayer who requested it and cannot be relied on by anyone else, but it is strong evidence of how the state reads the law. Every ruling above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original source.