By Jessica Eisenmenger and Jeffrey Friedman
The New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal sustained a determination by a Department of Taxation and Finance Administrative Law Judge that receipts obtained from the sale of retail pricing information services are subject to sales tax. Under New York law, information services are taxable, but services that are personal or individual in nature are excluded from tax. RetailData, LLC collects retail store pricing information from publicly available sources. However, RetailData’s service includes client-specific price investigations and reports that are customized for each client. The Tax Appeals Tribunal reasoned that this service does not qualify for the personal service exclusion because the source of its information is publicly available. In the Matter of the Petition of RetailData, LLC, DTA No. 825334 (N.Y. Tax App. Trib. Mar. 3, 2016).