SALT technology checklist

Highlights of the 3rd Quarter 2020 checklist include:

• Georgia: The Georgia Tax Tribunal granted a telecommunications company's refund request under the state's "high-tech" exemption. Georgia law provides an exemption from sales and use tax for the sale or lease of computer equipment to any high-technology company (based upon the taxpayer's NAICS code). The equipment must be incorporated into a facility in the state, and the exemption is available only to entities that purchase or lease more than $15 million of computer equipment in a calendar year. The Tribunal held that each asset type for which a refund was sought was an integral part to the taxpayer's wireless network, which itself was an assembly of hardware and software, and that the majority of the uniqe assets were themselves copmuters. Thus, the taxpayer's refund claim was granted. 
• Illinois: The City Council of Evanston, a home rule municipality in Illinois, amended and expanded the scope of its local amusement tax. The amendment, based on the City of Chicago's amusement tax, expands the tax to amusements delivered electronically, such as video streaming, audio streaming, and online games. 
• North Carolina: The North Carolina legislature expanded the imposition of the sales and use tax to digital codes, effective July 1, 2020. 
• Rhode Island: The Rhode Island legislature enacted legislation expanding the sales and use tax definition of "sale" to include "the right to use the specified digital products on a permanent or less than permanent basis and regardless of whether the purchaser is required to make continued payments for such right."

Many more developments are covered in the Techlist - download it below.