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Matthew A. Morris quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly on forthcoming SJC ruling on how to tax software used in multiple states

Matthew A. Morris, tax partner in the firm’s Corporate Department, was quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (MLW) on February 11, 2021. The article, “Tax treatment of multi-state use of software before SJC,” gives insight into the issue at play before the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in Oracle, et al. v. Commissioner of Revenue — how software is taxed when a company purchases multiple copies or licenses to be delivered digitally and used by employees outside of Massachusetts.

Click here to read the full article at masslawyersweekly.com (subscriber content).

From the article:

“Calling Oracle ‘a very important case,’ Boston tax attorney Matthew A. Morris says a finding in the commissioner’s favor would set a dangerous precedent, departing from the SJC’s previous holdings making the abatement process available to taxpayers to determine the appropriate assessment of tax.

‘The rights to abatement in G.L.c. 62C, §37, should be considered somewhat sacrosanct,’ Morris says.

As the ATB had noted, there are circumstances in which regulations set limits on the use of the abatement process, but this was not one of them.

‘The silence, in this case, speaks volumes,’ Morris says.

Morris agrees that it would be a ‘best practice,’ if possible, to follow the commissioner’s regulations to obtain an apportionment. But the commissioner’s position in Oracle is “unnecessarily punitive” in that it would restrict the scope of rights granted to taxpayers under G.L.c. 62C.”