Tech companies Oracle and Microsoft are eligible to seek a refund of a portion of the sales taxes they paid for their software to Massachusetts, the state’s high court found in a closely watched case about multistate sales tax apportionment.
The Friday ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts addressed two issues upon which the refund pathway hinged. First, the court held that taxpayers have a statutory right to apportion sales tax on software that has been transferred for use in more than one state. Second, the court found that the general abatement process—which allows a tax break for ...