Software As A Service | TaxConnections

09 Apr 2024

How Is Software As A Service (SaaS) Treated Under State Tax Laws?

A very important and often misunderstood area in the sales tax arena is the taxability of cloud-computing, cloud-based services, etc., collectively often referred to as Software-as-a-Service (or SaaS). The moniker alone is enough to start the state tax conversation down an interesting path.

The Basics

When we work with clients to determine how something should be taxed, we start with a few basic questions and then work from there.

Has nexus has been created?
This includes looking at both the physical presence as well as an economic presence. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2018 ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, many states enacted economic nexus statutes which require sellers to collect and remit sales tax in those states based on sales or transactional thresholds. In this process we also look at when nexus was created based on physical presence or economic nexus.

Is the product taxable?
Once nexus is established, the sale of tangible personal property by a retailer to a customer in a given state is generally taxable. We start there, and then review the transaction to see if there are any exemptions that would cause the sale of the property to not be taxable.

Written by Monika Miles | Posted in Software As A Service

24 Mar 2020

Software Is Better At Most Jobs Than People

Software is far better at most jobs than people are. I realize that statement will make a lot of people uncomfortable, but it’s true. In just about every industry I know, software-based solutions provide greater functionality, convenience and speed than their human counterparts. There’s just no way people can keep up. That’s what prompted Marc Andreessen to make his famous assertion that “software is eating the world.”

Ability to Scale Leads to a Better Outcome
The primary advantage of software is it can serve one person, or a million of them, equally well. Today, computing power is so cheap that it’s essentially free. So it doesn’t matter how complex a piece of software is; you just throw more hardware at it as needed. In fact, the more people who use a piece of software, the more useful the software becomes, because it can use the data it accumulates to discover patterns that humans couldn’t possibly spot.

To appreciate software in action, think about Amazon. You may feel nostalgic for the old-fashioned book seller, but you can’t say she was better than Amazon. A bookstore owner might have known the preferences of a few of her best customers. But there is no way she could pick the ideal book for each of them, much less give them a thorough set of reviews, both positive and negative, for a title they are thinking about buying. And no one particularly enjoys jostling in line in a crowded store, as happens on the last day of holiday shopping. At Amazon, though, there is never a wait, and lines are never a problem.
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Written by Andy Rachleff | Posted in Software As A Service • Wealthfront

08 Feb 2019

In The Cloud: Sales Tax And Software-As-A-Service

Monika Miles - In The Cloud Software As A Service

A very important and often misunderstood area in the sales tax arena is the taxability of cloud-computing, cloud-based services, etc., collectively often referred to as Software-as-a-Service (or “SaaS”). The very moniker alone is enough to start the state tax conversation down an interesting path.

The Basics

When we work with clients to determine how something should be taxed, we start with a few basic premises and then work from there.

Premise #1 (Nexus has been created): The taxpayer must have taxable presence (or “nexus”) with a state before the state can require the company to collect and remit sales/use taxes. Nexus is created in a variety of ways. Traditionally, we talked about having a physical presence, including such things as having employees in the state, third party contractors acting on the company’s behalf in the state, owning property (such as inventory) in the state, and owning or leasing office space in the state. Now, with the US Supreme Court’s ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair in June 2018, many states are enacting economic nexus statutes which require sellers to collect and remit in those states based on sales or transactional thresholds. (For instance in the South Dakota case, which many states have mimicked, sales of $100,000 OR 200 transactions in the state during the year will give rise to economic nexus, and a collection and reporting requirement for sellers.)

Written by Monika Miles | Posted in SAAS And Tax • Software As A Service