Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the physical presence nexus requirement for state sales and use taxes in South Dakota v. Wayfair, 138 S. Ct. 2080 (2018), taxpayers and practitioners have questioned the extent to which the Courtâs holding applies to locally administered sales and use taxes. This question is often rooted in the Courtâs statement in Wayfair that âStates may not impose undue burdens on interstate commerceâ and its reference to Pike v.…
On Tuesday, the New York Supreme Court granted Baker McKenzie’s motion to dismiss the New York Attorney General’s (“AG”) complaint against B&H Foto and Electronics Corp. regarding a purported False Claims Act (“FCA”) violation. The AG incorrectly alleged that B&H made a false claim on its tax return when they did not collect sales tax on “instant savings,” a type of vendor funding where a manufacturer reduces B&Hâs purchase price of a particular item based…
On April 30, 2021, the Court of Appeals of Maryland held in Travelocity.com LP v. Comptroller of Md., No. 14, 2021 Md. LEXIS 200 (Apr. 30, 2021), that the taxpayer, an online travel company, was not required to collect and remit state sales and use tax prior to the enactment of Marylandâs accommodations intermediary law in 2015. This ruling by the stateâs highest court, which overruled the lower courtsâ decisions, helps clarify the âpre-accommodations intermediary lawâ tax obligations of online travel companies, and may also be helpful in understanding the impact of marketplace facilitator law enactments more generally.
On April 12, 2021, Maryland legislators passed Senate Bill 787, which proposed several significant amendments to Marylandâs digital ad tax (see Maryland Passes Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax After Overriding Veto). Governor Larry Hogan declined to take action with respect to signing or vetoing Senate Bill 787. As a result, the legislation automatically became law, effective May 12, 2021. Most notably, Senate Bill 787 delays the effective date of the digital advertising tax to tax…