Noteworthy Cases

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In a recent private letter ruling, the South Carolina Department of Revenue concluded that a motor vehicle rental company is responsible for remitting sales tax on short-term vehicle rentals entered into through its online peer-to-peer rental program. Applying South Carolina’s statutory definition of “gross proceeds of sales,” which includes the proceeds of sales through a…

The Washington Court of Appeals held that taxpayer’s receipts for referral services are sourced to Washington for B&O tax purposes to the extent that such receipts are received from a lender located in Washington. The taxpayer operates an online platform through which the taxpayer offers educational tools on the loan process to prospective borrowers, analyzes…

The Missouri Supreme Court held that a company’s sales of linens, mattresses, desks, garbage cans, and DVD players to a company operating a chain of hotels were not exempt from sales tax as sales for resale. The court rejected the furnishing company’s argument that the sales were exempt because the hotels built the cost of…

On March 30, 2020, the California Court of Appeal overruled the city of Oakland’s demurrer regarding the validity of its waste management franchise fees on the grounds the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that the fees were taxes. The city entered into waste management contracts with two companies. In turn, the companies agreed to pay the franchise…

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…