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The California Supreme Court recently held that the City of Oakland’s waste management franchise fees may constitute illegal taxes that fail to meet the state’s constitutional voter approval requirements. Accordingly, the state supreme court upheld the reversal of a trial court decision sustaining the city’s demurrer.

The plaintiffs challenging the fees are owners of multifamily

The Utah Supreme Court ruled for taxpayers John and Brooke Buck, finding they were not domiciled in Utah during tax year 2012. The Court held that the State Tax Commission had incorrectly applied Utah’s statutory domicile presumption that attaches when a taxpayer claims a residential exemption for property tax purposes. As addressed in more detail

The Washington Court of Appeals recently issued a divided (2-1) decision in a case involving Washington’s “benefits received” test for apportioning service income.  The Court ruled that the “benefit” of an airplane design firm’s services were received in Washington, where the taxpayer’s direct customer, Boeing, manufactured the airplanes incorporating the taxpayer’s airplane designs, rather than

On July 27, the Indiana Department of Revenue found that a taxpayer had abandoned her Indiana domicile and was therefore no longer subject to Indiana state income despite the taxpayer erroneously listing her permanent address with her employer as her old Indiana-based address.

The taxpayer protested the imposition of Indiana income tax and provided the

Following a taxpayer’s assessment appeal, the Virginia Tax Commissioner determined that “easy return label” and “merchandise logo charges” were subject to Virginia sales tax.

Easy return labels
The taxpayer was a retailer of products sold online and through catalogs. The taxpayer offered its customers the option of returning merchandise using an “easy return label,” which

The Texas Court of Appeals held that a taxpayer’s refund claim sufficiently put the Comptroller on notice that the taxpayer claimed a manufacturing exemption. An electricity manufacturer filed a refund claim for sales taxes paid on various types of meters used in its business. The Comptroller denied the claim, and the taxpayer sought an administrative

On June 9, 2020, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued an advisory opinion concluding that coupon clearing and processing products sold to advertisers that issue discount coupons and the retailers that accept them are not subject to New York sales and use tax. The taxpayers’ customers included both advertisers and retailers.