[Discuss] Mass Tax on Software Services

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Will Rico wrote:
> Anyone have thoughts to share on the new Massachusetts tax on software
> services for "prewritten" software consulting or what it covers?
> 
> http://blog.codingoutloud.com/2013/07/28/open-letter-on-new-massachusetts-tax-on-software-services/

Good write-up. (The Slashdot discussion doesn't really add anything useful.)

The author initially paints the picture that this was a total surprise,
but near the end lets on that he had heard earlier that the legislature
was considering new taxes on software services, just that the scope was
different. Another consultant in the BLU community, Joseph Guarino, has
blogged/tweeted about this months ago when the earlier discussions were
happening.

The law change, as currently presented, does seem to be quite vague, and
raises numerous questions as to what is covered. Does any software using
"prewritten" components qualify for this tax? How are subcontractors
handled?

Until the scope of the change is understood, it's hard to argue the merits.

The other ridiculous bit is that they've scheduled to make the change
effective 6 days after it was published. Normally you'd see 6 or 12
months of advanced notice, so lawyers, accountants, and billing software
can all be brought up to speed. The vagueness of the law only compounds
this.

It gives the impression that maybe they aren't really serious abut
collecting this tax any time soon. Just hoping for some voluntary
participation in the remainder of 2013. (But that's obviously a high
risk way to interpret it.)

I sent an email to my state rep seeking clarification. I encourage
others who think they may be impacted by this to do likewise.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/