As commercial real property owners in Florida are likely aware, the Sunshine State imposes its sales tax on rental payments for the lease of real property. The general 6 percent state-level tax was reduced to 5.8 percent for 2018. The legislature passed a law to further reduce the state-level rate to 5.7 percent for occupancy periods beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2019. There is no reduction in the local option surtax that many Florida…

Just in time for the holidays, the New Jersey Division of Taxation announced a tax amnesty program. Taking a “carrot and stick” approach, the Division of Taxation said that it would take amnesty applications from Nov. 15, 2018, through Jan. 15, 2019, for outstanding liabilities for taxes administered and collected by the New Jersey Division of Taxation based upon tax returns due after Feb. 1, 2009, (the end date of the previous amnesty) and before…

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) placed a $10,000 annual limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT). In response to and attempting to work around that limitation, several states enacted programs that create charitable entities, contributions to which would entitle the donor to a credit reducing their property tax. This would reduce the amount of SALT paid by a taxpayer and allow the full deduction of the charitable contribution. New York’s…

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., et al., decided (5-4 although not the usual liberal/conservative split) that an online retailer does not have to maintain a physical presence in a state in order to be required to collect the state’s sales and use tax. This opinion overturns the pre-internet era 1992 precedent of Quill v. North Dakota, finding that Quill was erroneously decided. This decision says…

This week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for South Dakota v. Wayfair, regarding whether physical presence is required within a state for sales and use tax purposes, specifically addressing internet sellers. The case is challenging the Court’s 1992 decision in Quill v. North Dakota, 504 US 298, which upheld a decision from 1967 (National Bellas Hess v. Illinois, 386 US 753) and requires physical presence within a state in order to impose…

California’s Documentary Transfer Tax Act (Rev. & Tax. Code §§ 11901, et seq.) is based upon the former federal Documentary Stamp Tax Act first enacted by Congress to raise revenues for the Spanish-American War.  The federal law was repealed, effective Jan. 1, 1968, and simultaneously California, like many other states, picked up the tax with conforming legislation authorizing counties and cities to adopt their own documentary stamp tax on transferring of interests in real property. …