By Christopher Chang and Jack Trachtenberg

New York’s highest court has ruled that the state violated the Constitution when it retroactively denied tax credits to businesses under the 2009 amendments to the state’s Empire Zone Program. The Empire Zone Program is designed to stimulate private investment and job creation in designated areas throughout the state

By Jessica Kerner and Timothy Gustafson

The Texas Comptroller determined that a taxpayer’s email advertisement services were telecommunications services subject to the state’s sales tax. The taxpayer, a producer of real estate television shows for homebuilders, maintained a website through which it offered Internet-based services. The two services at issue were the taxpayer’s “Hot Sheet&rdquo

By Zachary Atkins and Prentiss Willson

A Texas administrative law judge ruled that a taxpayer was not entitled to make an alternative three-factor apportionment election under Article IV of the Multistate Tax Compact (Compact) for Texas franchise tax purposes. The Texas Tax Code requires taxpayers to use a single gross receipts factor to apportion taxable

By Shane Lord and Andrew Appleby

The California Superior Court ruled that certain special purpose entities (SPEs) owned by Harley-Davidson, Inc. had nexus in California. The taxpayer formed the SPEs as securitization subsidiaries, which the court held were subject to California income taxation because the SPEs: (1) were “financial corporations” under California law; and (2)

By Sahang-Hee Hahn and Pilar Mata

The California Supreme Court held that taxpayers may file a class action lawsuit to claim a refund of local telephone user taxes (TUT) paid to the City of Long Beach. The taxpayer class alleged that the City unlawfully collected the TUT on services that were determined to be nontaxable

By Scott Booth and Timothy Gustafson

The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled that an out-of-state corporation’s subsidiary qualified as a financial institution by virtue of the lending activities undertaken by the trusts in which it held beneficial ownership and from which the subsidiary derived more than 50% of its gross income. Under Massachusetts’ statutory “catchall”

By Kathryn Pittman and Jack Trachtenberg

On April 17, 2013, Select Medical Corporation (Select Medical) filed suit in federal district court seeking to enjoin Delaware from enforcing an unclaimed property assessment issued for years that had been resolved already through the state’s voluntary disclosure program. In 2006, Select Medical entered into Delaware’s voluntary disclosure program

By Todd Betor and Pilar Mata

In a Letter of Findings, the Indiana Department of Revenue disallowed a corporate partner’s attempt to deduct flow-through income from a limited liability company as “foreign source dividends and other adjustments” on its Indiana corporate income tax return. Indiana requires corporate partners to report their share of partnership income,