Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Scott Booth and Prentiss Willson
The Vermont Supreme Court held that coupon books distributed monthly, within a free weekly newspaper and also separately distributed on news racks, were not “component parts” of the newspaper, and thus were not exempt from Vermont sales and use tax as newspapers. Vermont exempts newspapers and tangible personal property…
By Mary Alexander and Prentiss Willson
The disallowance of a credit for income taxes paid to other states against Maryland’s county income tax was ruled unconstitutional as a violation of the dormant Commerce Clause by the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Maryland’s income tax, which includes both state and county components, is imposed on all…
The Virginia Tax Commissioner overturned the Department of Taxation’s adjustments to a taxpayer’s nonresident Virginia income tax return based on a determination that certain transactions between related entities were indeed conducted at arm’s-length, contrary to the Department’s prior findings. The nonresident taxpayer was the majority owner of both an out-of-state LLC as well as a…
By Kathryn Pittman and Andrew Appleby
The Utah Department of Revenue concluded that gift codes sold by an out-of-state seller (Gift Code Issuer) to Utah consumers were not subject to sales and use tax and that specified activities conducted by third parties in Utah relating to such sales of gift codes did not create nexus…
By Jessica Kerner and Pilar Mata
In an Advisory Opinion, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance held that a taxpayer developing a data center for Internet services is eligible for the State’s sales and use tax exemption pertaining to Internet data centers. In order to qualify for the exemption, the tangible…
By Madison Barnett and Timothy Gustafson
The Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission ruled that interest income and capital gains generated by a “rabbi trust”—a trust established to fund a nonqualified deferred compensation plan for the taxpayer’s officers—constituted nonbusiness income under the Uniform Division of Income for Tax Purposes Act (UDITPA). The trust income failed the transactional…
In a rare open session, the Multistate Tax Commission’s (MTC) Audit Committee (Committee) met yesterday to discuss changing the way the MTC selects companies to audit on behalf of states. For many taxpayers, the MTC’s process for selecting audit targets is a mystery because it occurs behind closed doors. The current selection process requires states…
The Multistate Tax Commission’s (MTC) Sales and Use Tax Uniformity Subcommittee is moving forward with a broad sales tax nexus model statute that includes click-through, affiliate and attributional nexus provisions. The Subcommittee also discussed a memorandum related to class actions and false claims acts. The nexus and class action projects are in the educational stage…
On March 5, 2013, the Multistate Tax Commission’s Income and Franchise Tax Uniformity Subcommittee declined to move forward with a transfer pricing project and instructed its Financial Institutions Working Group to examine the inclusion of loans in the property apportionment factor. For full details, read our legal alert, “Update from the MTC’s Winter Committee…
