United States: Sales Taxes: VAT, GST

The North Carolina Department of Revenue has announced the repeal of a significant sales and use tax exemption for electricity purchased by Certified Datacenters, effective August 2026. This change will require datacenter operators to pay combined general sales and use tax rates on electricity purchases and comply with new quarterly reporting requirements, while other datacenter-related exemptions remain intact.

North Carolina has introduced a new tax on peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms like Turo and Zipcar, effective October 1, 2026. The tax rates vary from 3% to 8% depending on the rental type, with providers required to register with the state Department of Revenue and collect taxes on their gross receipts. Understanding these new compliance requirements is essential for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing businesses operating in North Carolina.

North Carolina's Department of Revenue has issued new guidance consolidating sales and use tax refund caps for nonprofit hospital systems and their affiliates, fundamentally changing how multi-entity healthcare organizations claim tax refunds. The directive introduces aggregation rules that treat hospital systems as single entities for refund purposes, with prorated caps for the current fiscal year. Healthcare organizations must now coordinate refund claims across their entire system and reassess the financ

The Mississippi Department of Revenue has amended several sales and use tax regulations following a state Supreme Court ruling that challenged the Department's authority to impose use tax on third-party freight charges. These regulatory changes eliminate provisions that had been in place for years, fundamentally altering how businesses must handle use tax accruals on shipping and delivery expenses paid to parties other than the seller of goods.

Illinois has enacted a sweeping fiscal year 2027 budget that fundamentally reshapes state taxation for the digital economy, introducing new levies on targeted advertising, social media platforms, and digital asset transactions. The legislation also imposes volume-based taxes on fantasy contests and prediction markets while limiting corporate net operating loss deductions and expanding marketplace facilitator obligations to hotel booking platforms.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that loan servicing by an original lender after transferring loans to a purchaser does not qualify for VAT exemption, potentially creating significant tax costs for securitisation structures. This decision fundamentally challenges how credit management services are treated when the legal relationship between lender and borrower is severed, raising critical questions about VAT recovery in special purpose vehicle arrangements.

It is estimated that $1.5 to $2 trillion is passed annually to younger generations. As the "Great Wealth Transfer" continues, family business owners face a distinct set of personal and sometimes conflicting wealth transfer considerations.

The federal gift and estate tax exclusions and the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption increased significantly under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed in 2025....

State tax amnesty programs provide a limited opportunity for taxpayers with unpaid tax liabilities to come forward voluntarily and resolve those obligations with reduced financial consequences.