In a recently released private letter ruling (issued October 13, 2021), the Wisconsin Department of Revenue concluded that certain online learning platform services were not subject to sales tax, whereas others were a bundled transaction and potentially taxable. The company’s platform is a virtual learning environment where students stream on-demand digital academic courses that consist of video lessons on a variety of topics, including academic subjects, professional topics, or vocational licensing preparation courses. Subscriptions also include access to live online tutoring to answer questions. Users cannot download the courses, but may be access them through the company’s mobile app that is downloaded. The company offered its service through different packages. Only those packages restricted to college courses for credit and tutor access were nontaxable educational services. Packages that with both taxable and nontaxable elements were bundled transactions. However, if the sales price attributable to taxable and nontaxable products in the bundled transactions could be determined, then tax should only be collected on the portion of the sales price attributable to taxable products, and if the taxable portion of the sale is less than 10%, the whole package is not taxable.
