Sales and Use Tax Attorney — Digital Product Classification and Employer Registration

JOB TITLE: Maryland Sales and Use Tax Attorney — Digital Product Classification and Employer Registration (22 Products, Fixed Fee) CONTRACT TYPE: Fixed Fee Single written memorandum, two-part deliverable IMPORTANT — READ BEFORE APPLYING A full Statement of Work is available upon selection. Review this posting carefully before submitting a proposal. OVERVIEW We operate a consumer safety technology platform under a four-entity Delaware holding company structure. The platform is a downloadable mobile application that generates and stores user-created evidence and delivers certified forensic packages to credentialed third-party professionals. We are preparing to go live in Maryland and need a written tax determination before products are created in live mode. We have read Maryland Business Tax Tip #29 in detail and are bringing specific readings for confirmation or correction rather than open-ended questions. This should reduce your starting point considerably compared to beginning from first principles. SCOPE — TWO PARTS PART 1: PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION — 22 PRODUCTS Six product categories require a Maryland sales and use tax determination: Consumer SaaS subscriptions — three monthly recurring tiers sold to individuals for personal safety use. Currently carrying a business-use tax code. We believe these are taxable personal-use SaaS at 6% and that the current code may be creating an under-collection risk. Session Boosters — three one-time add-on purchases for consumer accounts. Currently carrying a personal-use code with automatic tax not enabled. Need confirmation and correction where needed. Evidence Vault storage tiers — four monthly recurring subscriptions differing only by hosted storage quota. The platform is not bare cloud storage — subscribers stream and download files they created through an authenticated dashboard. Currently carry a SaaS electronic download code. We believe these may fall inside Maryland's cloud storage carve-out but are not certain the streaming and download functionality keeps them there. Extended Access subscription — monthly recurring subscription restoring temporary authenticated access to already-archived content. Two provisions in Tip #29 point in opposite directions. Needs a determination. Certified Evidence Package and processing fees — a generated forensic package delivered to a credentialed third-party professional who is not our subscriber and who retains it permanently. Four recipient classes with different default fees by recipient type. Compliance can waive or adjust any fee. We believe this qualifies as non-taxable customized information processing but need confirmation on the bundling question and the government exemption. Enterprise and government tier — five scenarios: organization seat license (custom per-seat recurring), subsidy credit pool (organization buys credits; employee checkout is reduced to zero with a valid credit and full price without), the full-price employee checkout when no credit exists, government and union invoices paid by purchase order or ACH outside the payment processor, and tax-exempt organizations before a certificate workflow is built. IMPLEMENTATION QUESTIONS Four questions have direct build consequences and must be answered: Does separate line-item statement within a single checkout session preserve the individual tax treatments of each product, or does the bundled transaction rule apply to the entire charge? Does Maryland treat the platform differently because it is a downloadable mobile application that performs part of its functionality locally on the device, including audio recording and GPS tracking, in addition to hosted cloud infrastructure? For multi-state enterprise buyers: does the apportionment mechanism apply, and if so what written statement must we obtain from the buyer? How should we handle potentially tax-exempt organizations before a certificate workflow is built? PART 2: EMPLOYER WITHHOLDING REGISTRATION A management services entity that serves as employer of record for all four companies in the group is a Delaware LLC. We expect Maryland-based employees within four months. We need to know whether that entity must register for Maryland employer withholding before hiring, whether SDAT foreign qualification is a prerequisite, and whether the registration should begin now in parallel with our sales tax registration. We also need to know whether the entity's role as management services provider to the operating companies creates any separate Maryland sales and use tax registration obligation. ONE OPEN ROYALTY BASE QUESTION One item remains open from a completed IRC Section 482 transfer pricing study: whether app-store commissions are deductible from Net Licensed Revenue. The study addressed processing fees, promotional discounts, and bad debts. Commissions are the remaining open item. DELIVERABLE FORMAT — NON-NEGOTIABLE The memorandum must be delivered in exactly two parts: Part A: A table with one row for every product, covering recommended tax code, taxable in Maryland yes or no, applicable rate, authority, certainty, and an implementation note stating what we must do for the treatment to hold. Where a product currently carries a code the attorney considers incorrect, the current code and the correct code must both be stated. Part B: A written response to each numbered question in the Statement of Work, structured by question number so completeness can be verified by matching Q numbers. A memorandum that omits any question does not constitute delivery and does not trigger payment. The memorandum must be dated and state the attorney's name. Both will be recorded in our platform's tax advisor configuration record alongside each classification. Payment releases only when both parts are complete and all questions are addressed. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE Licensed tax attorney or CPA in good standing — provide license number and state Maryland sales and use tax experience, specifically classification of digital products, SaaS, cloud storage, and electronically delivered content — general federal tax experience is not a substitute Familiarity with Maryland Business Tax Tip #29 — candidates who can reference it without looking it up are strongly preferred Experience with multi-entity holding structures and intercompany transactions is helpful but not required SCREENING QUESTIONS — ANSWER ALL FOUR Confirm your license number, state, and credential type (attorney or CPA). Describe your experience with Maryland sales and use tax classification of digital products, SaaS, or cloud storage. Have you worked with Business Tax Tip #29? Provide your hourly rate or proposed fixed fee for this scope, and confirm your availability for seven-day delivery. Note any conflict check you require before proceeding. TO APPLY Answer all four screening questions. Reference specific sections of the scope summary where relevant. The full Statement of Work is provided upon selection. Proposals without answers to all four questions will not be reviewed.