Akerman State and Local Tax Practice Chair Stefi George shared her insights with Bloomberg Tax this week on the New York Court of Appeals’ decision that significantly narrows the state's sales and use tax exemptions for information services.

"The majority opinion really narrowed the scope of the exclusion and in such a way that it’s not necessarily consistent with the regulations and with prior law,” Stefi told the publication.

She argued that the dissenting opinion offered a better standard, allowing exemptions when client data is personalized, even if some information overlaps across reports. Stefi emphasized that merely using incidental data for other customers should not disqualify a report from exemption, and the majority’s restrictive interpretation undermines the intended scope of the law.