E-Commerce Tax Content Now Available for Checkpoint Catalyst Users

Thomson Reuters has released new e-commerce content for Checkpoint Catalyst that is focused on purely electronic transactions, in addition to the company’s cloud computing and sales and use tax nexus coverage.

Checkpoint Catalyst, which is built on the award-winning Checkpoint platform and launched last June, is a new generation of tax research that provides the whole picture of complex business tax topics – with sources, diagrams, interactive tools, multi-jurisdictional content and featured developments coming together in context, all on one screen.

“In our globalized world, electronic and other forms of remote commerce have resulted in ever-more-complex transactions that often map uneasily onto the existing sales and use tax laws, which are based on the idea of a physical sale or use occurring in a state,” said Rebecca Newton-Clarke, J.D., senior editor with the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters.

“With the rise of digital goods, downloaded and remotely-accessed software and apps, and web-based services, the sales and use tax landscape has become even more complex, requiring states to address an ever-mutating variety of transactions not involving any exchange of physical property, and taxpayers to stay abreast of the implications of new rulings,” she added.

Checkpoint Catalyst analyzes each state’s treatment of purely electronic commerce transactions to date, and takes a quick look at recent nexus developments that may affect these transactions.

”Technology changes much faster than state tax laws can adapt,” said Leah Samit Robinson J.D., LL.M., partner with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and Checkpoint Catalyst author. “As a result, many e-commerce transactions and scenarios do not fit neatly into many states’ sales and use tax provisions. This results in widely disparate treatment among states.”

Checkpoint Catalyst is a collection of topics that provide multijurisdictional analysis into specific tax issues and business transactions from a practical, workflow perspective, covering implications at the federal, state, and US international levels. Topics recently added to the Checkpoint Catalyst library include:

Financially Troubled Businesses
Sales and Exchanges: Basic Principles
Sales and Use Tax: Utilities Services