Just weeks after passing the Commonwealth’s Transportation Finance Bill (“H.B. 3535”) through a legislative override, twenty top business leaders in Massachusetts filed an initiative petition to the state’s attorney general to repeal the law that made various computer services subject to sales and use tax. H.B. 3535 was passed into law on July 24, 2013 and took effect a week later on July 31, 2013. If the Attorney General deems the petition constitutional, the petitioners must collect 68,911 certified voter signatures by December 4, 2013. The Legislature will then view the petition and determine whether to repeal, modify, or take no action. If the Legislature takes no action, the petitioners will need to collect an additional 11,485 signatures. At that point, Massachusetts voters would decide whether to repeal the tax when they head to the polls in November of 2014. Besides business leaders moving to repeal the bill, Massachusetts State Senator Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) filed petition, S.D. 1872, to repeal the new sales tax. Senator Spilka previously voted in favor of H.B. 3535.

H.B. 3535 has created quite a buzz around Massachusetts, as businesses scramble to understand and properly apply sales and use tax to computer system design services and the modification, integration, enhancement, installation, or configuration of standardized software. As of August 9, 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue publication Frequently Asked Questions: The New Computer and Software Services Tax Effective 7/31/13 had ballooned to fifty five questions, as the department continues to add new questions submitted by taxpayers. The Read More