Massachusetts decides to tax cloud services

Beijing August 23 News, according to foreign http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/31646.html "> Media reports, when the cloud computing services tax, when not tax?" The problem has plagued many states throughout the country, and Massachusetts is another state that will make a decision on the issue.

The Gulf state--some also known as the "Massa tax state"--this month made the same rule as several other states: Cloud-based software (SaaS) should be taxed in some cases, such as the need for a license to run the software and the use of the service by Massachusetts residents, Taxachusetts. Must be taxed.

The state's tax bureau stipulates that if the software is open source or provided free of charge, it does not need to be taxed. It has been a thorny issue for the states, says Kelly Miller Kelley Miller, a law expert on science and Technology, who specializes in how states levy clouds.

The Massachusetts Tax Office says the market is changing rapidly. Mr Miller says the traditional tax code does not work for the new era of cloud computing because there is no physical disc or hardware deal. Massachusetts, she says, seems to be echoing other states ' decisions, "the question is whether the software you buy is the boxed software that people bought from stores in 10 or 15 years ago." If so, Massachusetts and other states claim they have the right to tax.

Massachusetts stipulates that if the service is free and does not require permission, it cannot be taxed. This means that many cloud services, such as Google Docs (Google Docs) or Dropbox, will not be taxed, Miller said. But Massachusetts has set aside some taxable services for the situation. The state tax Bureau said that if the supplier received additional data transmission fees, according to the Telecommunications Service law should be taxed.

Miller said that over the past year, more than 10 states have issued a succession of cloud computing tax decisions, the issue of a different point of view. The Gulf state, for example, is in line with the Utah State released this spring, which also believes that licensed software should be taxed, but that some free, open-source software can be tax-free.

She said many other States had not formally imposed a levy on the timing of the tax on cloud services, which placed the service providers in an awkward position. Miller, together with clients, asked the states if they could ask for a tax on their services, leading to the Massachusetts rule. The State Department of Taxation is required by a company to deal with the name of the company when it is issued.

"I think a lot of states will take this opportunity to give some clear guidance on the technology," says Mr Miller, showing that cloud computing remains a prominent role in it. Interestingly, how cloud service providers respond to regulations in Massachusetts and other states. Businesses can provide free or open source software rather than licensing, and receive tax breaks in some states. Miller says she will closely monitor which companies will change the way they sell their products as a result of these new rules.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)