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The Arizona Department of Revenue (“Department”) recently made public Letter Ruling 16-011 (“Ruling”), which concluded that a taxpayer’s gross income from electronic transaction processing services that involved the use of software was not taxable for Arizona transaction privilege tax (“TPT”) purposes.  The Department opined that the electronic transaction processing services were not taxable as a rental of tangible personal property because the taxpayer’s customers did not have the “exclusive control” over the software required for a taxable rental.  This Ruling is significant because the Department, like revenue departments in several other states (including New York), has historically concluded that online services involving the remote access or use of software were subject to the TPT as a rental of tangible personal property, without analyzing the degree of control the customer had over the software.

Beginning in October 2015, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has been releasing draft regulations that will implement New York’s extensive corporate franchise tax reform. The initial draft regulations addressed three topics: nexus, sourcing of other services and other business receipts, and sourcing of receipts from sales of digital products. The draft nexus regulations incorporate the new tax law’s economic nexus provisions. (See N.Y. Tax Law Section 209.1(a).)  The draft sourcing regulations…