The following is lifted from the DOR's FAQ: 2. What are modifications to prewritten software that are taxable under the new law? A. Modifications to prewritten software that are subject to tax under the new law are modifications to software which is licensed, sold or otherwise made available to more than one user, where such prewritten software is modified for the use of a specific customer. The modification may be made either by the original seller/licensor of the software or by a third party. For purposes of this tax on modification, integration, enhancement, installation or configuration of standardized (prewritten) software, prewritten software *does not include* proprietary code owned by the provider (seller) of the modifications if that proprietary code is not separately licensed to customers. Custom application software (including custom software that incorporates such proprietary code) that is designed to run on a prewritten operating system is /treated as custom software and not as a modification of the prewritten operating system software/. I interpret the second sentence to say that there is no tax on original code as long as the modifications are not licensed to the customer (i.e. as long as the customer is paying for the coder's time and not for a license to use the coder's product). I interpret the third sentence to say that there is no tax on original (unlicensed) code that uses prewritten, third party, libraries and runs on prewritten OSs. This lets those that write code off the hook for the most part and it helps clarify that the tax *does apply* to development within standalone database frameworks like Excel, Access, Drupal, Joomla, etc. where much of the development involves modification to an underlying database. I wonder, however, if they tax bookkeeping services and, if not, how is that different from working within these other database frameworks? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20130823/854b6375/attachment.html