Photo of Daniel Schlueter

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. 

The Ninth Circuit concluded that a plaintiff had standing to continue her lawsuit against a clothing company alleging that the company wrongly failed to pay interest on refunded Alaska sales taxes. After a related lawsuit was filed alleging that sales taxes were incorrectly collected, LuLaRoe, Inc. refunded the plaintiff $531.25 in sales tax charges. The

On May 11, a San Francisco trial court held that the California Constitution allows special local taxes proposed by voter initiative to be enacted with a simple majority vote, in contrast to the two-thirds vote required for special taxes proposed by local government. The ballot initiative in question imposed a $298 per parcel tax and

On February 6, 2020, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals held that a captive automobile financing company was not subject to commercial activity tax (CAT) on receipts that it earned in connection with three types of revenue streams:

  1. receipts from sales of retired leased vehicles,
  2. receipts from securitization transactions, and
  3. interest subvention payments.

Background: