Resources | State & Local Tax

By Jordan M. Goodman and Joe Carr, Tax Partner, BDO USA. Please feel free to reach out to the authors with questions.  A new trend in state and local tax reporting in California combines certain income tax and unclaimed property reporting requirements on 2021 and future business income tax returns to enhance compliance. The increased compliance efforts of the California…

Effective January 1, 2022, the California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) has the authority under Assembly Bill 466 to share information with the State Controller’s Office (“SCO”) relating to a taxpayer’s compliance with the California’s unclaimed property laws. To gather this information, the FTB has added a few questions to California’s business entity tax returns for tax year 2021, including whether…

As we move into harvest season, we here at Cover Your SaaS (CYS) have cultivated a fresh crop of updates for your enjoyment. Keen observers will note that there has been a somewhat larger gap than usual between newsletters and we admit, it has been a minute. Of course, absence makes the heart grow fonder so we are excited to…

On January 21, 2021, the Chicago Department of Finance (“Department”) issued an anticipated Information Bulletin (“Nexus Bulletin”) providing guidance on nexus and establishing a prospective “safe harbor” for certain taxes, including electronically delivered amusements under the Chicago’s Amusement Tax (“Amusement Tax”) Ordinance and nonpossessory computer …

On November 16, 2020, the City Council for the City of Chicago (“City Council”) amended the Chicago Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax Ordinance (“Ordinance”), eliminating the lower rate of tax on a nonpossessory lease of a computer, which includes “cloud” software products.

With the holidays upon us, it seems like a good time to take a pleasant stroll through the cloud computing and digital product SALT developments you and your clients should be aware of. We returned to the “classic” format for this edition, organizing the stories …

Welcome to the third edition of Cover Your SaaS. Following a brief mid-summer hiatus from which the authors returned pale as ever, we dive once more into the cloud computing and digital product SALT developments you and your clients should be aware of. This is …

Welcome to the second edition of Cover Your SaaS, your new favorite(ish) semi-regular publication from HMB Legal Counsel’s State & Local Tax team. Far from accepting a sophomore slump, this edition boldly delves into SALT developments in the digital products sphere, the importance of separately …

Welcome to the first edition of Cover Your SaaS, a new semi-regular publication from HMB Legal Counsel’s State & Local Tax team. Using the latest in news-scanning technology, i.e., the daily emails that land in our inbox, our goal is to keep you updated on …

House Bill 3394, approved by the Governor on August 27, 2019 and effective immediately (Public Act 100-589), amends the Business Corporation Act of 1983 (“BCA”) to add new Section 8.12 and amend Section 14.05.

In a prior post, I explained the basics of the Chicago Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax (“Transaction Tax”), including the applicability of the tax to tangible personal property and software, potentially applicable exemptions and exclusions from the tax, and collection issues. This follow-up post in …

State taxation of corporate partners in multistate partnerships raises interesting issues. In many circumstances, the corporate partner is subject to multistate taxation and is therefore engaged in the process of allocating and apportioning its income on a multistate basis.

With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), many taxpayers have begun to focus on the manner in which states tax foreign income. Illinois? taxation of foreign income is fairly in line with most other states. However, given how much states can diverge on this …

Although the Chicago and Cook County amusement tax are imposed similarly on taxpayers, they are independently administered taxes that feature key differences. Both the Chicago Amusement Tax Ordinance and Cook County Amusement Tax Ordinance impose the tax “upon the patrons of every amusement” within the …

The “Parking Lot Tax” has recently been targeted by the Cook County Department of Revenue. In the past 3-5 years, we have seen a significant uptick in the Department’s audit activity, and challenges to Taxpayer positions. Their efforts have primarily focused on the enforcement of …

In a previous post, we addressed the basics of Illinois corporate income tax apportionment. We also addressed how while most corporations are required to follow the standard statutory formula, the state imposes unique rules on a number of industries, including financial organizations. In addition to …

In a General Information Letter published in 2017, Illinois addressed how its taxation of canned and custom software would apply to cloud computing. The state explained that software as a service (SaaS) is not subject to the Retailers’ Occupation Tax, and SaaS providers are instead …

Partnerships are not subject to the Illinois Income Tax. Instead, partners are taxed individually on their distributive shares from a partnership. For nonresident individual partners, only their pro rata share of the partnership’s income apportioned to Illinois is taxable. Corporate partners may be required to …

The Illinois Franchise Tax is a weird tax. It is imposed on the privilege of exercising a franchise in Illinois or, in the case of foreign corporations, for the authority to transact business in the state. It is administered by the Illinois Secretary of State, …

Like many states, Illinois and a number of Illinois localities impose motor fuel taxes. Although these taxes are each generally similar, they function slightly differently and are administered by different agencies. It is important not only for retailers of motor fuel, but any business that …

For taxpayers surprised to find their business caught in the crosshairs of a Chicago or Cook County audit, substantial penalties can also be an alarming challenge. In a prior post, I outlined penalties assessed by the Illinois Department of Revenue (“Department”), the basis for relief, …

The Illinois Constitution was adopted on December 15, 1970. The constitution sets forth the taxing powers of home rule units and describes the exclusive power of the General Assembly to raise revenue. Because the constitution creates the framework for how Illinois’ taxing system functions, this …

The new rule provides that the presence of an out-of-state retailer or its representative in Illinois for the purpose of engaging in trade show activities establishes nexus for the retailer and requires collection of use tax on all sales into Illinois unless three conditions are …

At the close of an audit, in addition to tax and interest, a taxpayer may also be assessed various types of penalties that can be substantial and even surpass the underlying tax liability. However, there are several courses of action for seeking penalty abatement, which …

Like most states, Illinois statutes and regulations permit taxpayers and the Director of the Department of Revenue to obtain alternative apportionment of Illinois base income. Although case law is relatively scant, alternative apportionment remains an important means of reaching a fair income tax liability in …