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In a pending precedential decision, the California Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) held that the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) is bound to follow its own regulation and could not rely on its audit manual to disregard that regulatory authority.  Regulation 1595 provides that the agency will use “book value” as the…

Voters in California headed to the polls (or mailboxes) this Election Day not only to choose the next president of the United States but also to make decisions on a range of tax policy questions.  From removing property tax protections for commercial properties to imposing new and increased business gross receipts taxes in San Francisco,…

Two significant tax ballot measures were on the ballot for voters in the Portland area this Election Day.  Here’s a look at what measures passed and which ones failed.

Failed.  The Portland Metro Council Measure 26-218 proposed authorizing a payroll tax on employers for workers in the metropolitan Portland areas to fund transit improvements and…

In Private Letter Ruling 2020-14, the North Carolina Department of Revenue determined that an information technology company’s managed services – maintaining and monitoring its clients’ network equipment and software – were subject to sales and use tax. The taxpayer’s Terms of Use, which sets the scope of its services, qualified as a taxable service

The Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously held that the Louisiana Tax Commission did not act in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it rejected a property tax assessor’s valuation for ad valorem taxes.  In 2012, D90 Energy, LLC purchased several wells.  For tax years 2013 through 2016, D90 Energy appealed assessments by a Jefferson Davis Parish…

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that an affiliated group of telecommunications companies properly computed the Broadband Investment Credit in determining their franchise and income tax liabilities.  The Broadband Credit may be used by a taxpayer to offset up to 50% of the taxpayer’s tax liabilities in a given year.  The taxpayers filed separate Mississippi franchise…

Effective July 1, 2020, Iowa law permits utility companies to utilize an inflow-outflow billing method for eligible distributed generation facilities. Under the inflow-outflow method, a generation customer is responsible for paying for the inflow kWh energy charge (sales to customer), while the amount of outflow kWh energy charge is credited to the customer (purchases from…

A Louisiana court of appeals affirmed a trial court decision dismissing for lack of personal jurisdiction the Louisiana Department of Revenue’s (“Department”) petition to collect corporate and franchise taxes on over $3.6 million in royalties from nonresident television production company Jeopardy Productions Inc. (“Jeopardy”). Jeopardy earned royalties from Louisiana between 2011 and 2014 through agreements…

On October 7, 2020, the Massachusetts Appeals Court held that a taxpayer’s deduction for payment of the Indiana utility receipts tax (“URT”) was permitted for Massachusetts corporate income tax purposes. The taxpayer who was engaged in natural gas distribution operations in Massachusetts and other states, claimed a deduction for the URT it paid to Indiana…