Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Ted Friedman and Madison Barnett
The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that it would violate Due Process to impose income tax on an out-of-state inter vivos trust because the trust lacked a sufficient connection with North Carolina. The trust was created and governed by laws outside of North Carolina, the Trustee resided outside…
Sutherland SALT releases the second edition of the SALT Scoreboard, a quarterly publication that tracks significant state tax litigation and controversy developments and tallies the results of taxpayer wins and losses across the country. Our quarterly publication features Sutherland’s observations regarding important state tax decisions and will identify trends by issue, state and forum as…
By Alla Raykin and Jonathan Feldman
An administrative law judge (ALJ) held that a taxpayer’s activities in Washington were not selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance in the state, but rather marketing other in-state insurance companies’ products and receiving commissions from those marketing materials. Accordingly, the taxpayer was not eligible for the lower business & occupation…
By Zachary Atkins and Charlie Kearns
The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld an Appellate Tax Board decision disallowing interest expense on certain intercompany financing transactions because the underlying agreements did not establish an “unqualified obligation to repay.” The taxpayers, subsidiaries of a British utility, entered into a series of complex agreements—deferred subscription agreements—to sell and repurchase…
By Hanish Patel and Amy Nogid
The Minnesota Supreme Court held that Minnesota’s adoption of the Multistate Tax Compact (Compact) did not create a binding contractual obligation and, as a result, the state’s subsequent repeal of the Compact’s alternative apportionment election provision was not prohibited as unconstitutionally impairing contractual obligations. As such, the taxpayer was…
By Hanish Patel and Eric Coffill
The Alabama Tax Tribunal held that a taxpayer was entitled to a refund of sales taxes paid on purchases of software that was modified for its exclusive use because it constituted nontaxable custom software. Relying on its regulation, the Alabama Department of Revenue (DOR) denied the refund, stating the…
By Charles Capouet and Todd Lard
The Supreme Court of Texas held that an oil and gas exploration and production company’s purchases of casing, tubing, other well equipment, and associated services were not exempt from sales tax under various processing exemptions. Texas provides multiple exemptions from sales tax for certain tangible personal property related to…
The New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal reversed an administrative law judge (ALJ) and determined that a health maintenance organization (HMO) was subject to the New York City general corporation tax.
In Aetna, the parties stipulated that all the requirements for combination had been satisfied, so the sole issue was whether…
By Charles Capouet and Madison Barnett
The New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal held that a bank filing a combined New York City bank tax return properly excluded from its combined group a Connecticut investment subsidiary that primarily held mortgage loans secured by non-New York property. Where there are substantial intercorporate transactions among banking corporations…
By Stephen Burroughs and Scott Wright
The Supreme Court of Arkansas recently upheld use tax assessments imposed upon a contractor that purchased and installed equipment used in a water treatment facility expansion. Arkansas exempts from sales and use tax purchases of machinery and equipment used to create or expand a manufacturing or processing facility in…
