THE TOP 10 NEW YORK TAX HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018 -

Once again, we present our annual list of what we considered the Top 10 New York tax highlights of 2018.

1. Court of Appeals Agrees to Hear Tax Department’s Appeal Involving Sales Taxation of Information Services. In June 2018, the New York Court of Appeals (New York’s highest court) granted the Tax Department’s motion for leave to appeal an Appellate Division decision that held that the furnishing of grocery store pricing information to the Wegmans supermarket chain qualified for the New York sales tax exclusion for information services that are “personal or individual in nature.” Wegmans Food Mkts., Inc. v. Tax Appeals Trib., 155 A.D.3d 1352 (3d Dep’t 2017), leave to appeal granted, 31 N.Y.3d 908. The Appellate Division, reversing a Tax Appeals Tribunal decision, had rejected the Department’s narrow interpretation of the “personal or individual” exclusion and found that the pricing information furnished to Wegmans, while publically available information, was not derived from a widely accessible common source or database as the exclusion had previously been applied by the courts. Briefing has concluded, but, as of this writing, oral argument before the Court of Appeals has not yet been scheduled.