In the waning days of its 2025 session, the Maryland Legislature passed the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, and Governor Wes Moore signed it into law.[1] This bill expands the sales tax base to include sales of...more
On May 20, 2025, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 5814, a sweeping tax bill that expands Washington’s retail sales and use tax to digital advertising services and a range of high-tech and IT...more
On April 27, 2025, the Washington Legislature delivered to Governor Bob Ferguson’s desk Senate Bill (SB) 5814, a sweeping tax bill that, among other changes, would expand the state’s retail sales and use tax to sales of...more
Legislators in Sacramento, California, are mulling over one of the most (if not the most) troubling state and local tax bills of the past decade.
Senate Bill (SB) 799, introduced earlier this year and recently amended,...more
4/23/2025
/ California ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Government Agencies ,
Penalties ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State Attorneys General ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Liability ,
Taxation ,
Whistleblowers
In a realignment of judicial review standards, the Kentucky General Assembly overrode Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) veto of Senate Bill (SB) 84, effectively abolishing judicial deference to all agency interpretations of...more
On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Secretary of Commerce, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled to overturn its four-decade-old decision in Chevron USA Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Counsel. While the...more
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen’s ambitious plan to provide $2 billion in property tax relief via an increase in the sales tax rate and an expansion of the sales tax base is stirring significant debate. Part of his proposal is...more
1/19/2024
/ Advertising ,
Commerce Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Digital Advertising Tax ,
Digital Service Providers ,
Internet Tax Freedom Act ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Maryland ,
New Legislation ,
Property Tax ,
State and Local Government ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Litigation ,
Tax Relief
On October 4, 2023, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed House Bill 4104 into law. The most significant change it introduces is the adoption of single-sales-factor apportionment (SSF) for all corporate taxpayers, not...more
In a brief filed on April 29, 2022, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office (Attorney General) agreed that the “pass-through prohibition” of the state’s digital advertising tax “does not purport to impose any restriction on...more
On March 11, 2021, US President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the COVID-19 relief bill that includes $350 billion in relief to states and localities. To prevent states from using federal relief...more
Most states have historically not subjected foreign-source income to state income tax. Consequently, since the passage of TCJA, the vast majority of states have opted not to tax GILTI (with most states explicitly decoupling...more
1/24/2020
/ Department of Revenue ,
Dividends ,
Federal Taxes ,
Foreign Earned Income ,
GILTI tax ,
Income Taxes ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Repatriation ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deductions
On January 14, LB 989 was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature, which would impose sales and use tax on “the retail sale of digital advertisements.” The bill defines “digital advertisement” as “an advertising message...more
On January 8, SB 2 was introduced to establish a new digital advertising gross revenue tax of up to 10% on “annual gross revenues of a person derived from digital advertising services in the state.” This uncharted new tax...more
1/13/2020
/ Advertising ,
Commerce Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Digital Communications ,
Equal Protection ,
First Amendment ,
Income Taxes ,
Online Platforms ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Legislation ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Returns ,
Tax Revenues
As the economy shifts to a digital one, we are finding that states are turning toward unconventional revenue options. One trend we’re seeing is the surprising comeback of the gross receipts tax (GRT):
• Oregon’s new...more
9/25/2019
/ B&O Tax ,
Business Taxes ,
Commercial Activity Tax ,
Gross Receipts Tax ,
Income Taxes ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
New Legislation ,
Payroll Taxes ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Legislation ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Revenues
Many New Jersey taxpayers have a reason to celebrate today as the Division of Taxation withdrew Technical Bulletin-85, providing for a special apportionment regime for global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) and income...more
Recently passed budget legislation in both Connecticut and Rhode Island included tax increases on sales of digital goods and services. The Connecticut bill has been signed into law. The Rhode Island bill passed late last...more
7/1/2019
/ Digital Downloads ,
Digital Goods ,
Digital Services ,
Digital Taxes ,
Electronically Downloaded Products ,
General Assembly ,
New Legislation ,
Pending Legislation ,
Sales & Use Tax ,
State Budgets ,
State Taxes ,
Tangible Property ,
Tax Rates
Legislators in Frankfort added a new “video streaming service” tax to the omnibus tax bill (HB 354) as part of a closed-door conference committee process before the bill was hastily passed in the House and Senate. Notably,...more
On May 8, Governor Bill Lee (R) signed SB 558, which provides for the exclusion of 95% of Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) and foreign earnings deemed repatriated under IRC section 965 (965 Income) from the tax base...more
Judicial deference to state tax agencies puts taxpayers at a steep disadvantage and wastes time and resources on costly tax disputes. A united advocacy effort can help promote passage of state-level legislation that takes the...more
On December 19, 2018, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of McDermott’s client, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), the trade association for pharmaceutical distributors. In...more
Due to the current impact and the likelihood that states will consider legislation and agency guidance addressing federal tax reform implications for state business taxes, a united, effective, nationwide advocacy effort is...more
Earlier this month, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy released his Governor’s Bill addressing the various state tax implications of the federal tax reform bill enacted by Congress in December 2017, commonly referred to as the...more
2/16/2018
/ Dividends ,
Federal Taxes ,
Foreign Earned Income ,
Governor Malloy ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
International Tax Issues ,
IRS ,
Repatriation ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Reform ,
Trump Administration
Due to the current impact and the likelihood that states will consider legislation and agency guidance addressing federal tax reform implications for state business taxes, a united, effective, nationwide advocacy effort is...more
The No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017 (NRWRA) is scheduled for a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law on Tuesday, July 25 at 10:00 am EDT in 2141...more
7/25/2017
/ Antitrust Division ,
Business Taxes ,
Commerce Clause ,
De Minimis Claims ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Nexus ,
Physical Presence Test ,
Quill ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Sales & Use Tax ,
State Taxes
The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS) recently issued demand letters to many remote sellers requiring that they either: (a) provide electronic sales records for all individual sales shipped to a Connecticut...more