State Taxation of The Sharing Economy - My Notes From the Paul J. Hartman SALT Forum

As I was sitting in the State Taxation of the Sharing Economy (i.e, Uber, Airbnb, etc.) session at the Paul J. Hartman State and Local Tax Forum presented by Jeremy Abrams, French Slaughter and Reid Okimoto last week, I took some notes. Here are a few of them:

  1. How you characterize a charge (i.e., label it) and the contract language will most likely determine how the charge is taxed for sales tax purposes.
  2. Will states 'back into' the characterization?
  3. How do you source the sharing economy? By service address, billing address, or where the transaction starts or ends?
  4. Does the Internet Tax Freedom Act pre-empt any sales taxation of the sharing economy?
  5. Is physical presence 'nexus' MORE important, NOT less important due to technology advances and changes in how transactions occur?