Noteworthy Cases

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In a recent unpublished decision, Residuary Trust A v. Director, Division of Taxation (Kassner), the New Jersey Appellate Division relied on the “square corners doctrine” to hold that the New Jersey Division of Taxation was prohibited from imposing tax for the 2006 tax year based on a policy change not announced until 2011. In…

By Chris Mehrmann and Amy Nogid

The Washington State Supreme Court held that a car dealership’s earnings from a “dealer cash” incentive program, offered by the manufacturer, American Honda Motor Company, to dealers to stimulate sales of certain car models within a specific time period, are taxable under the catchall provision of the business and…

By Stephen Burroughs

The Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals (Board) has held that Netflix’s digital streaming service is not subject to the state’s telecommunications taxes.

Kentucky’s telecommunications tax regime is comprised of three distinct taxes, each imposed on the provision of “multichannel video programming service” (MVPS). The taxes consist of a gross revenues tax, an…

By Evan Hamme and Tim Gustafson

In a rare Chief Counsel Ruling (the first of 2015), the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) held that the sale of an entire line of business qualified as an “occasional sale” for corporate franchise tax purposes, thus requiring the selling taxpayer to exclude the resulting gross receipts from its…

By Mike Kerman and Madison Barnett

The Indiana Tax Court granted summary judgment to Rent-A-Center East, Inc. (RAC), finding that the Department of Revenue’s determination that RAC and two affiliates should have filed a combined return was improper. This case was on remand from a prior Indiana Supreme Court ruling (please see our prior coverage…

By Michael Penza and Timothy Gustafson

The Virginia Tax Commissioner upheld an upward adjustment to a taxpayer’s payroll factor attributing to Virginia all compensation that the taxpayer had reported to the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) for purposes of the state’s unemployment insurance tax. The taxpayer, a Virginia-based contractor providing security services for the United States…

By Mike Kerman and Open Weaver Banks

The Washington Court of Appeals held that for local business and occupation (B&O) tax purposes, a securities broker with employees in its Seattle office must source to Seattle the receipts from commissions for services performed by the employees via phone and Internet. Under the city ordinance implementing the…

By Michael Penza and Amy Nogid 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit invalidated Florida’s rental tax imposed on the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s (the Tribe) leases of tribal land to non-Indian corporations, but upheld Florida’s utility tax collected from the Tribe. 

The Tribe operated casinos on two of its reservations; non-Indian corporations…

By Charles Capouet and Timothy Gustafson

The Supreme Court of Missouri denied a Missouri corporation’s sales tax refund claims on its sales of trade show displays shipped to out-of-state customers because it did not prove that the title to the goods transferred outside of Missouri. Missouri exempts from sales tax retail sales made in interstate…

By Nicole Boutros and Amy Nogid

The New Jersey Tax Court ruled that the Division of Taxation (“Division”) properly required a foreign (non-New Jersey domesticated) corporation to file corporation business tax (“CBT”) returns reporting licensing revenue from its parent attributable to New Jersey, based on New Jersey’s economic presence nexus standard, despite the parent’s royalty…