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The Supreme Court of Idaho upheld the lower court’s judgment that the Idaho Reimbursement Incentive Act (“IRIA”) does not violate the separation of powers provisions of the Idaho Constitution because the IRIA does not delegate lawmaking powers to an administrative body and the IRIA does not limit judicial review. An administrative agency created under the…

The Washington Court of Appeals held that Seattle’s method of apportioning the City’s business and occupation tax (B&O tax) was unconstitutionally applied and unfairly apportioned when the City excluded compensation paid to independent representatives from the apportionment payroll factor. The taxpayer, a financial services firm headquartered in Seattle, generated most of its income through the…

On March 2, 2020, the Oregon Tax Court held that the application of the state’s E911 Tax to a provider of interconnected VoIP services (“Taxpayer”) did not violate the Due Process and Commerce Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The E911 Tax is imposed on each person with access to Oregon’s emergency communications system, whether through…

The Michigan Court of Appeals recently held that the state’s statutory apportionment formula was unconstitutionally distortive as applied to a taxpayer’s Michigan Business Tax (MBT) liability. Therefore, the taxpayer was entitled to use an alternative formula. The court noted that this is an exceptional case where the taxpayer met its burden to show that the…

The New Jersey Tax Court ruled that an individual owner of a single-member limited liability company (“SMLLC”) correctly reported his distributive share of partnership income reported by the SMLCC. The SMLLC owned a 50% interest in a partnership that reported losses. On his New Jersey gross income tax return, the individual owner of the SMLCC…

On January 9, 2020, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, upheld a New Jersey Tax Court decision that income, or “receipts,” earned by a taxpayer from providing broadcast fax, email and voice messaging services were performed within New Jersey and thus the majority of such receipts were properly sourced to New Jersey for purposes…

The Washington Court of Appeals held that a laboratory created by the University of Utah was not a government entity exempt from Washington taxation.

Affirming the lower court’s decision, the Washington Court of Appeals rejected Arup Laboratories, Inc.’s arguments that it should be excluded from paying B&O taxes because it is an “arm of the…

Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court held that receipts from subscriptions to remote access software were subject to sales tax as taxable transfers of prewritten software.  Following a change in the law to tax sales of prewritten software regardless of medium of delivery, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue promulgated a regulation stating that such taxable sales include…

After nearly a decade of stalled litigation in Illinois state court, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit permitted a group of taxpayers to proceed in federal court with their US constitutional challenge to property tax assessments, over Tax Injunction Act and comity objections by Cook County. While the district court held that…