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The Michigan Supreme Court held that revenue from the performance of services must be sourced to the location where the service provider’s employees performed the work, not where the services were delivered, for purposes of the City of Detroit’s income tax. Detroit imposes an income tax under the Uniform City Income Tax Ordinance (“UCITO”), which…

The New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal struck down the retroactive application of legislative amendments to a taxpayer who reasonably relied on a precedential decision of the Tribunal that was final and irrevocable at the time the taxpayer sold his shares in an S corporation.

On July 31, 2009, the non-resident taxpayer sold shares in…

The Washington Department of Revenue’s Administrative Revenue and Hearings Division ruled that a company’s audit disqualifies its affiliates from participating in the state’s voluntary disclosure (VDA) program. One of the criteria for participating in the program requires that a business must have never been contacted by the Department for enforcement purposes including audits. The Division…

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…

The New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal held that an electricity generation company was a qualified New York manufacturer for purposes of calculating New York State franchise tax on a corporation’s capital base, even though the company did not qualify for purposes of the entire net income base.

During the period at issue, a New…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the Board of Finance and Revenue’s (Board) order, in part, and determined that when a retailer’s receipt separately states the coupon presented and sufficiently identifies the item to which the coupon applies, a taxpayer is only liable for sales tax based on the price as reduced by the coupon…

On February 28, 2020, the Oregon Tax Court held that multiple airlines operating as a unitary business should aggregate not only transportation revenue but also other metrics, such as departure ratios, that are factored into the apportionment formula used by Oregon for airline taxpayers. Oregon regulations provide a modified single sales factor apportionment rule for…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a defense contractor was entitled to a refund of franchise tax because it had incorrectly sourced certain sales of military aircraft made to foreign governments to Texas on its originally-filed returns for the 2005 through 2007 tax years. The contractor produced military aircraft in Texas, which it sold to…

The New York Department of Taxation and Finance recently published an advisory opinion stating that a taxpayer’s New York corporate income tax filing status should be determined by “what activity [a taxpayer] is principally engaged in” and by whether 50% of its aggregate gross receipts in a taxable reporting period are from such activities. The…

The Ohio Board of Tax Appeals upheld the Tax Commissioner’s disallowance of the “bulk credit” upon a second audit of the same transactions. During an initial audit, the taxpayer had provided purchases throughout the country, and the auditor estimated those purchases with an Ohio ship-to address and then applied a “last resort” bulk credit against…