State Tax Rulings
Free state tax letter rulings and advisory opinions with plain-English summaries, full citations, and the original source on every page.
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Can a Virginia UPS-system seller obtain a refund for a data-center sale when the contractor supplied a valid Department exemption letter only after the transaction?
Possibly, but only after transaction-specific verification. At the time of sale, the seller correctly collected tax because it had no valid Department-issued data-center exemption certificate. The con…
Can a separate entity that owns farm equipment, land, or other farm capital qualify as a Louisiana commercial farmer?
Yes, if the related entity has substantial common ownership with an operating farm that meets the production tests. The related entity must also report farm income or expenses on Schedule F or a simil…
Does Georgia sales tax apply when a medical-records company provides paper records, electronic records, coding, data processing, or records-department services?
It depends on the delivery and service. Paper or other tangible medical records are taxable, including charges needed to produce and deliver them. Electronic-only records, coding, formatting, abstract…
Were fees charged directly to learners for online courses and digital completion certificates subject to Florida sales or communications services tax?
No. The online courses and digital certificates did not transfer tangible personal property, and the educational service did not provide communications access or taxable video programming.
What Virginia tax interest rates applied during the third quarter of 2019 to assessments, refunds, disputed assessments, estimated tax, and certain local taxes?
For July 1 through September 30, 2019, Virginia's state tax underpayment rate on assessments and overpayment rate on refunds were both 7%, reflecting federal 5% rates plus Virginia's two percentage po…
Can taxpayers appeal a county's BPOL refund-denial letter directly to Virginia when they never first filed a formal local administrative appeal?
No. The county's denial of the 2015 BPOL refund was the appealable event that started the taxpayers' right to file a formal local appeal; their original refund request was not itself that appeal. The …
Could Virginia review a county's BTPP manufacturer-classification denial when the letter cited a BPOL statute and was not issued by an authorized final decision-maker?
Not yet. A ready-meal producer sought BTPP refunds, arguing it should be classified as a manufacturer. The county could not eliminate the taxpayer's statutory administrative-appeal option merely by di…
Did Virginia reconsider its refusal to hear BTPP appeals where taxpayers used the circuit-court route, appealed assessments before issuance, or lacked a final local decision?
No. For 2015, the taxpayers used Va. Code § 58.1-3980, whose next review step is circuit court under § 58.1-3984, not an administrative appeal to the Department. For 2016 and 2017, their local letter …
Were the requesting company's survey, data-analysis, consulting, and online-reporting charges taxable?
No. The Department found that the true object was the requesting company's customized professional service: designing and conducting surveys, gathering and analyzing data, and delivering client-specif…
For local sales tax purposes, where is an online marketplace sale "consummated" when the order is placed through out-of-state servers but fulfilled from a Texas warehouse that isn't open to the public?
Generally, at the delivery address, not the warehouse. When an online order is placed through a website/app and processed on out-of-state servers, and fulfilled from a Texas fulfillment center that is…
How does Tennessee's excise tax treat a company's federal Subpart F income from foreign subsidiaries — is it a dividend, and when can the company deduct it?
Two answers. (1) YES — for Tennessee excise tax, a company's 'Subpart F income' (the foreign-subsidiary earnings the federal tax code makes a U.S. parent report currently) is treated as a DIVIDEND, co…
Did telecommunications equipment and software sales qualify for Virginia's retail ISP or electronic-delivery exemptions, and when was dealer refund interest payable?
The additional tax refunds were denied, but refund interest was allowed on amounts already approved. Wireless providers can qualify for Virginia's ISP equipment exemption, yet the seller did not prove…
Are small bottled energy shots labeled as dietary supplements exempt from Florida sales tax as food products?
Yes. The bottled shots contained vitamins and minerals and were labeled as dietary supplements. Florida treated them as dietary supplements and therefore as food products exempt from sales tax.
My state government agency buys telecom services used by our staff in Illinois -- does Illinois's telecommunications excise tax exemption for 'state governments' cover MY state, or only Illinois's own government?
Yes -- the Illinois Department of Revenue confirmed that the Telecommunications Excise Tax Act's exemption for 'State governments' is not limited to Illinois's own government; it covers state governme…
What did the 2019 Kansas legislature change for motor fuel and electric vehicles?
Kansas Notice 19-03 summarizes two 2019 bills. House Bill 2087 (Section 1) amended the definition of 'school bus' in K.S.A. 79-3401(r) for motor fuel refund purposes, so it now covers a privately owne…
Does a Georgia aircraft-painting company charge sales tax for stripping, sanding, and painting aircraft, and who pays tax on the materials?
No. Charges for stripping, sanding, and painting aircraft are non-taxable service charges because Georgia does not specifically tax those services. The aircraft painter is generally the consumer of pa…
Which separately stated charges in a turnkey Florida storm-restoration services contract are taxable?
Most separately itemized service and property charges remained in the taxable sales price. Separately stated potable water was exempt, and optional transportation-only charges—including mobilization o…
How did Virginia's June 2019 accelerated sales-tax payment work, including the $4 million threshold, 90% calculation, reconciliation, penalties, and hardship waivers?
For June 2019, a dealer with at least $4 million of taxable sales and/or purchases during July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 had to prepay 90% of its June 2018 retail sales and use tax liability. All …
Did pre-assessment objections and later emails to New Mexico tax employees preserve a business's right to contest 2016 and 2017 gross receipts tax assessments after the 90-day protest deadlines?
No. Corwin Research & Investigations had until July 19, 2016 and November 30, 2017 to protest two assessments, but Michael Corwin's first formal protest was mailed September 21, 2018. Earlier emails w…
Are a couple Yonkers residents or New York City residents when their house sits entirely in Yonkers but the front yard, and the mailing address, are in the Bronx?
They are Yonkers residents, subject to the Yonkers resident income tax surcharge. Residency follows the location of the dwelling and the couple's domicile, not the Bronx mailing address; the residenti…
Could Virginia decide whether a real-estate investor was a BPOL-taxable contractor when the county's final letter was signed by an unauthorized employee?
No. The county had classified the real-estate investment LLC as a contractor and taxed gross receipts from property sales, but the Department did not decide whether the activity was a contractor busin…
If I'm an Illinois resident and both Illinois and Indiana taxed my gambling winnings, can I get an Illinois credit for the tax I paid to Indiana?
No, in most cases the credit works out to zero. Illinois's credit for taxes paid to other states is capped based on how much of your income would be sourced to other states under Illinois's own sourci…
What does Illinois General Information Letter IT 19-0009-GIL conclude about Education Expense Credit?
Consumable school supplies used up in lab-type courses and private piano lessons counted toward a fine-arts requirement can qualify as Education Expense Credit expenses for a home-schooled child, but …
Does a Georgia energy-savings company charge sales tax when it owns and installs efficiency equipment but bills customers only from measured utility savings?
No. Georgia treated the transaction as a non-taxable energy-savings service because customers sought measured cost savings, not the installed equipment; the provider owned and controlled the equipment…
Why did a Virginia part-year resident owe more tax after correctly excluding pre-move income from Virginia?
The extra tax did not come from taxing State A income. On the original return, the taxpayer had already reduced federal adjusted gross income by the pre-Virginia income. The amended return correctly r…
Could a taxpayer receive the overpayment shown on a June 2018 original 2014 return after Virginia separately refunded payment of a mistaken nonfiler assessment?
No. Virginia discovered that the employer had failed to report tax withheld from employees, so it refunded the amount the taxpayer had paid to satisfy the resulting nonfiler assessment. But the separa…
Could a New Mexico employer avoid penalties for withholding returns filed about two years late when it had paid the tax on time but overlooked separate return-filing links on the Department website?
No. The School for Advanced Research paid its September–November 2016 withholding taxes on time but did not file the three returns until November 2018. Its employee speculated that website changes sep…
Can a federally taxable IRA distribution qualify for Virginia's first-time home-buyer savings-account subtraction when used to buy a first home?
Potentially. Virginia's first-time home-buyer rule can apply to an account at a financial institution, and the fully federally taxable IRA distributions met the requirement of being taxable income att…
Does using a self-directed IRA and tax-exempt trust custodian shield a taxpayer's regular home-purchase, renovation, and resale activity from Virginia BPOL tax?
No. The taxpayer selected homes, decided the renovations, hired tradespeople, directed IRA payments, set listing prices, and reinvested sale proceeds. Those regular profit-seeking activities were his …
What does Illinois General Information Letter IT 19-0008-GIL conclude about Withholding – Other Rulings?
Yes: for an Illinois resident who works partly in another state but whose out-of-state work is incidental (or Illinois is the base of operations), the full wages are properly reported as Illinois inco…
What does Illinois General Information Letter IT 19-0007-GIL conclude about Refunds – Credit Of Overpayment To Liabilities?
Yes — although the Illinois Income Tax Act uses permissive "may" language, the Department's own regulation (86 Ill. Adm. Code 100.9400) makes crediting an overpayment against an outstanding tax liabil…
Could New Mexico levy a wife's individually titled IRA to collect gross receipts tax arising from her husband's business when she did not operate the business and was never assessed?
No. Michele Giacomo was a nurse who did not participate in her husband's medical-equipment business, was not assessed, had no collection responsibility, and had not agreed to assume the tax. Joint inc…
Does Maryland wage withholding relieve a Virginia resident commuter from Virginia income tax under the Virginia-Maryland reciprocity agreement?
No. Virginia's reciprocal agreement with Maryland generally assigns a Virginia resident's commuting wages to Virginia only. The taxpayer was a Virginia resident, worked in Maryland, earned only wages …
Was a military spouse exempt from 2014 Virginia tax by claiming the service member's state when she had stayed there only 30 days before a planned overseas move?
No. The pre-2018 military-spouse rule protected a spouse present in Virginia solely to accompany a service member under orders only when the spouse and service member shared the same domicile. Althoug…
Could a restaurant member remove converted sales-tax assessments by saying her late husband alone managed finances when Department records listed her as a member?
Not on the unsupported statement alone. Individual liability under Va. Code § 58.1-1813 requires willfulness, a covered officer/member/employee role with a duty concerning the tax, knowledge of the fa…
Could a Virginia horse-boarding stable buy feed and supplies under the agricultural exemption, and could Virginia extend its use-tax audit from three to six years?
No exemption applied. Virginia requires production of an agricultural product for market, while stable operators must pay tax on operating property and feed for riding or pleasure horses is expressly …
Can a Virginia seller claim good-faith reliance on resale certificates that lack a date, valid registration number, or the specific exemption?
No. Virginia presumes sales taxable unless the dealer accepts a valid exemption certificate in good faith. A certificate incomplete, invalid, infirm, or inconsistent on its face is never acceptable wi…
Is reactivating spent (used-up) industrial activated carbon by burning off its absorbed impurities "manufacturing" or "processing" for Texas sales tax purposes, or is it just a taxable repair service?
It's a repair service, not manufacturing or processing. A company that reactivates customers' spent activated carbon by dewatering it and burning off absorbed impurities is restoring someone else's de…
If a buyer at a Utah auction hires his own commonly-owned trucking company to haul the goods to another state, is the sale exempt from Utah sales tax — and does it matter that the buyer owns the carrier?
No Utah sales tax is due. Because a shipping company (even one the buyer owns) took possession in Utah and delivered the goods to the buyer out of state, the sale is sourced to the out-of-state delive…
Could a Virginia retailer invalidate a two-month purchase sample projected over a 36-month audit when it agreed the months were representative but lacked invoices?
No. At the audit's start, the specialty retailer confirmed that the two chosen months represented the full January 2015-December 2017 period. When it could not produce all requested invoices, the audi…
Does an online event-ticketing platform owe Tennessee sales tax on the fees it charges, and who has to collect sales tax on the tickets — the platform or the event organizer?
Three things. First, the online event-ticketing company's own charges — its Service Package fees and its Payment Processing fees — are NOT subject to Tennessee sales tax. They pay for nontaxable event…
Which taxes can a multistate vehicle rental company credit against Texas minimum tax liability, and can deductions be added later?
Legally paid sales, use or rental tax from another state could reduce the Texas minimum tax liability, but Texas local venue taxes could not. A trade-in could not be added after titling; a missed fair…
Are mandatory Florida HOA assessments used to maintain association-owned recreational facilities taxable as admissions?
No, if the association is properly licensed, the payment is mandatory as a condition of homeownership, and the facilities are association-owned common areas available to members. Optional membership u…
Could a convenience store disprove Virginia's cigarette-sales reconstruction using purchase records from one distributor location when the distributor report covered the full membership account?
No. The distributor's data identified all tax-free cigarette purchases under the convenience store's membership account, potentially across multiple distributor locations. Virginia compared that total…
Should a one-time end-of-lease equipment purchase be removed from a Virginia audit sample when the taxpayer cannot identify the property on the lease or invoice?
Not on this record. Virginia agreed that a one-time end-of-lease purchase could be nonrepresentative and clarified that property need not be booked as a fixed asset before it may be removed from a sam…
Could a cigarette retailer overturn reconstructed sales, penalty, and interest by asserting below-cost rebate sales when it supplied no sales or inventory records?
No. Distributor records showed cigarette cartons bought tax-free for resale far exceeded the cigarette sales the retailer reported. Virginia notified the retailer, requested purchase, resale, and tax-…
What does Illinois General Information Letter IT 19-0006-GIL conclude about Credits – Other?
IT 19-0006-GIL explains how to claim the River Edge Redevelopment Zone remediation tax credit on Schedule 1299-D, but tells the taxpayer that because the credit sunset for tax years beginning on or af…
Does an internal show committee of a tax-exempt nonprofit society count as its own "bona fide chapter" — entitled to its own separate two-one-day tax-free sale allowance — when the committee's event profits are transferred back to fund the parent organization's own operating expenses?
No. A show committee of a Section 501(c)(3) exempt organization is not a "bona fide chapter" entitled to its own separate two-one-day tax-free sale allowance, because its leaders are appointed (not el…
I sell hemp-derived CBD oils, edibles, beverages, and topical creams -- what Illinois sales tax rate applies to them?
CBD products sold primarily for internal human consumption qualify as "food" under 86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.310 and are taxed at the low 1% state rate (plus applicable local taxes). The Department could …
The company I pay for email marketing services says it must charge me Illinois sales tax, but they don't sell or license me any software -- is that right?
The Department did not resolve this taxpayer's specific dispute with his email-service provider -- it only restated the general rules for how Illinois taxes software and software-adjacent services, si…
Is a document-scanning service taxable when the seller delivers digitized invoices on separately charged CDs?
Yes. The CDs were consequential tangible personal property needed to deliver the digitized invoices, and the seller separately charged for them. The full invoices were taxable, and the customer was no…
Did a leave-and-earnings statement alone prove a military couple remained domiciled outside Virginia after moving there in 2015?
No. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prevents a service member, and in qualifying circumstances a spouse with the same domicile, from changing domicile solely because of military orders. But it doe…
Did two affiliated real estate investment trusts need Virginia's permission to file a combined return in their first year of affiliation?
No. The parent REIT had filed Virginia returns before 2017, but the subsidiary REIT first became required to file in Virginia for 2017. Virginia treated 2017 as the first full taxable year in which th…
Could an aircraft dealer retroactively elect Virginia's dealer exclusion after buying and operating aircraft without filing the required election?
No. Although the taxpayer qualified as an aircraft dealer, it bought three aircraft in 2014-2015, placed them in service, did not timely elect the dealer treatment, and paid no tax on lease, charter, …
Which construction purchases stayed taxable when a Virginia contractor challenged tax on building parts, school equipment, signs, hardware, and markerboards?
Virginia reached a mixed result. Prefabricated metal building parts stayed in the audit because tax paid by the Virginia seller to its own manufacturer did not prove tax on the separate sale to the co…
Were amusement-center party packages taxable in full when they combined gaming admissions with food, and could phone advice erase the assessment?
Yes, the full package charge was taxable. Standalone admissions or participation charges may be exempt, but Virginia's admissions rule taxes a cover or minimum charge that includes food, drinks, or ot…
Could a sign manufacturer remove service, billboard, freight, and church transactions from audit without documents proving the claimed exemptions?
No. Virginia upheld all twelve invoice adjustments. Labor, surveys, permits, removal, and a second-trip charge were treated as services connected with sales of signs, power supplies, or other property…
Were coordination and computer-time charges tied to graphics taxable, and was a copier maintenance agreement that could supply parts taxed in part?
Yes. The custom exhibit company sold services together with graphics, and Virginia found the true object was production of tangible graphics. Coordination labor, artist time, and computer time connect…
Which commercial kitchen-hood and fire-suppression inspection, cleaning, and repair services are taxable in Florida?
Kitchen-hood cleaning and inspection were not taxable, and hood or suppression-system repairs were real-property work. A suppression-only inspection was exempt, but checking a connected fire-alarm pan…
How are cereal malt beverage sales taxed at Kansas retail liquor stores after HB 2035?
Kansas Notice 19-01 explains that 2019 House Bill 2035 clarified the tax collected on cereal malt beverage (CMB) sold in retail liquor stores. Effective April 1, 2019 (upon publication in the Kansas R…
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