Samantha K. Breslow

Samantha K. Breslow and David A. Hughes join the Chicago Tax Club for a webinar focused on recent sales tax developments in cloud computing.

Don’t miss HMB’s SALT team at the 2022 IPT Sales Tax Symposium! Samantha K. Breslow will be presenting various topics related to current state and local tax trends.

HMB’s State and Local Tax group held a seminar at one of Chicago’s favorite social clubs, SPIN. Our team was delighted to see everyone in person again to discuss all things SALT! View a recoding of the seminar and request a copy of a presentation here.

On June 27th, Samantha K. Breslow will provide a refresher on the basics of state and local income taxation at the 2022 IPTAnnual Conference. During her presentation, she will also give an overview of how cities, countries and other local jurisdictions tax employees and employers based on their worksite or residence.

Sam will dig into the tax implications for an array of technologies including software, SaaS, digital goods, streaming content, cloud computing, digital advertising and cryptocurrency.

HMB Legal Counsel is pleased to announce three new partners across HMB’s State and Local Tax, Real Estate and Business and Finance Groups, effective January 1, 2023. Samantha K. Breslow has been elevated from Associate and Jamie L. Ross and Lisa A. Rothstein, having previously been Of Counsel at HMB, have joined the firm as Partners.

David A. Hughes and Samantha K. Breslow Discuss Chicago’s Cloud Tax and Audits with Bloomberg Law.

In an article by Law360, Samantha K. Breslow discusses Illinois Lawmakers approving the budget with GILTI addback. Read the full article by Law360 here. Illinois would require an addback for certain global intangible low-taxed income deductions, halt a phaseout of its franchise tax and temporarily cap net operating loss deductions under a $42.3 billion fiscal year 2022 budget that lawmakers…

In the Illinois Practitioner Series, HMB's SALT team discusses various topics covering Illinois Procedures, Corporate Income Tax, Retailers' Occupation Tax (Sales Tax) and Use Tax and Local Taxes. Questions? Reach out to the state and local tax team here.  …

Auditors in Chicago have been aggressively asserting that businesses have tax duties under the "cloud computing tax" because of their economic presence, or the volume of business they conduct within the city. In an article by Bloomberg Law News titled "State of Wayfair: Economic Thresholds Sneak Into Chicago Audits" by Michael J. Bologna, Samantha Breslow explains that the problem is…

In this second of a three-part series, Breslow discusses the Internet Tax Freedom Act and whether the digital world has really been protected from the tax man. Adoption and Intent of the ITFA Initially adopted in 1998 under the Clinton administration with the mantra “no new internet taxes,” the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) was made permanent on February 24,…

On March 19, 2020, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot announced that the City of Chicago will extend the due date for “small businesses” to pay the following Chicago taxes to April 30, 2020: Bottled Water Tax, Checkout Bag Tax, Amusement Tax, Hotel Accommodations Tax, Restaurant Tax, and the Parking Tax. The City requires that taxpayers pay these taxes on or before the…

Read the full article on Tax Notes here (subscription required). Samantha Breslow discusses how the sluggishness of legislation does not often adjust itself to the speed and terminology of technology. However, there are a few states that are adapting to overcome the discrepancies. Download a PDF of the full article here. Debugging the (State Tax) Code: Outdated Sales Tax Terminology…

Effective January 1, 2022, the California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) has the authority under Assembly Bill 466 to share information with the State Controller’s Office (“SCO”) relating to a taxpayer’s compliance with the California’s unclaimed property laws. To gather this information, the FTB has added a few questions to California’s business entity tax returns for tax year 2021, including whether…

On January 21, 2021, the Chicago Department of Finance (“Department”) issued an anticipated Information Bulletin (“Nexus Bulletin”) providing guidance on nexus and establishing a prospective “safe harbor” for certain taxes, including electronically delivered amusements under the Chicago’s Amusement Tax (“Amusement Tax”) Ordinance and nonpossessory computer leases taxed under the Chicago Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax (“Transaction Tax”) Ordinance.

On November 16, 2020, the City Council for the City of Chicago (“City Council”) amended the Chicago Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax Ordinance (“Ordinance”), eliminating the lower rate of tax on a nonpossessory lease of a computer, which includes “cloud” software products.

In a prior post, I explained the basics of the Chicago Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax (“Transaction Tax”), including the applicability of the tax to tangible personal property and software, potentially applicable exemptions and exclusions from the tax, and collection issues. This follow-up post in the Practitioner Series further clarifies the application of the Transaction Tax to “cloud” software products and explores the interplay with the Illinois Retailers’ Occupation Tax (“ROT”).

Although the Chicago and Cook County amusement tax are imposed similarly on taxpayers, they are independently administered taxes that feature key differences. Both the Chicago Amusement Tax Ordinance and Cook County Amusement Tax Ordinance impose the tax "upon the patrons of every amusement" within the city or county, but require the owner, manager, or operator of the amusement to collect the tax from each patron and remit the tax to the Chicago Department of Finance or the Cook County Department of Revenue.