User-Specific Web Site Data Not Subject to Tax in New York

A company that provided website visitor information specific to its customers was not required to charge tax on this service. In this situation, the company provided information about the behavior of visitors to the customer’s website. The information, collected and reported to the customer, qualifies as an information service and is excluded from tax as it is customer-specific. On the other hand, services which aggregated data from multiple sites and was made available for sale to the public was subject to tax as the information was not “personal or individual in nature.” (TSB-A-06(17)S, New York Commissioner of Taxation and Finance, May 30, 2006)

Posted on November 20, 2006