Members of our SALT team are looking forward to several presentations this week. Here are the highlights:

California Tax Foundation’s 2024 Webinar Series

On Tuesday, December 10, SALT Counsel John Ormonde will examine California local tax election results and identify potential trends in local tax policy. This session is part of the California Tax Foundation’s 2024 webinar series. Register here.

TEI Ethics Webinar

Also on December 10, SALT Partners Tim Gustafson and Dan Schlueter will explore ethical dilemmas facing state tax professionals as part of TEI’s second annual webinar series focused on ethics. Register here.

2024 Georgia Department of Revenue and Tax Bar Liaison Committee Meeting

On Wednesday, December 11, SALT attorneys Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin will discuss the establishment of Georgia’s new judicial branch tax court in an event hosted by the Tax Law Sections of the Atlanta Bar Association and State Bar of Georgia. Register here.

2024 New Mexico Tax Law Symposium

Also on December 11, SALT Partner Jeff Friedman will present a SALT litigation update during the 2024 New Mexico Tax Law Symposium. This day-long institute will focus on updates to New Mexico and federal tax law, equity considerations for tax practitioners, and the ethics of tax law practice.

Please welcome our December SALT Pet of the Month, Rush! This six-year-old Collie resides with Jay Roberts, senior manager of international tax at Janus Henderson Investors, in the foothills of Denver, CO.

This curious Collie got his name from his active personality, constantly running around as a puppy. He particularly enjoys going on hikes and camping with his family and has a penchant for Milk Bones. His only pet peeve is when the trash can is rolled up the driveway. Notably, this is the only time this Rush barks.

At home, he has been known to stir up a bit of mischief. Rush is a huge foodie with a particular taste for Mexican food. One day, he found his way to a crockpot full of red chile beef when Jay was running an errand. When Jay returned, he discovered that Rush had eaten roughly three pounds of meat! As you can guess, Rush had quite a tummy ache, and Jay had to quickly come up with another plan for dinner. As for Rush, he would do it all over again, every single day of the week.

We are pawsitively thrilled for Rush to join the SALT Pet of the Month family!

Calling all trivia fans! Don’t miss out on a chance to show off your SALT knowledge!

We will award prizes for the smartest (and fastest) participants.

This week’s question: Which state recently announced a tax amnesty program offering penalty waivers for eligible taxpayers?

E-mail your response to SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com.

The prize for the first response to today’s question is a $25 UBER Eats gift card. This week’s answer will be included in our SALT Shaker Weekly Digest, distributed on Saturday. Be sure to check back then!

The New York Division of Tax Appeals (DTA) held that a taxpayer’s employment severance payment received over a year after her relocation out of the state was allocable to New York for personal income tax purposes.

The taxpayer worked for a school in New York for 11 years before going on sabbatical leave and moving to Hawaii at the end of 2018. The taxpayer was terminated in June 2019 and she signed a separation agreement and release in February 2020 which provided for a severance payment. The severance amount was computed as a percentage of her salary plus health insurance costs.  The taxpayer testified that her severance package was intended to compensate her for the missed opportunity to work at another school for the school year and for a release of any known or unknown claims against the school.

The DTA held that the severance was New York source income under Tax Law § 631 (b)(1)(F) as income received by a nonresident related to a business, trade, profession or occupation previously carried in New York, including termination agreements. Additionally, the taxpayer’s general release that listed a wide range of claims rather than a specific claim was in the nature of severance pay and not damages received in settlement of litigation.  Lastly, the DTA held that prior conflicting rulings were made before the legislative enactment of the above referenced subsection.

Matter of Vora, Determination DTA No. 830987 (N.Y. Div. Tax. App. 2024).

The Ohio Board of Tax Appeals held that automobile dealers were not subject to the Ohio Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) on their sales of motor vehicles because the purchase, receipt, and delivery of the vehicles took place entirely outside of Ohio. The Department of Taxation assessed the dealers, which were located in West Virginia, for the CAT. The Department claimed that gross receipts from its sales of motor vehicles to Ohio purchasers must be sourced to Ohio where the purchaser accepted the vehicle in West Virginia and then drove it to Ohio. The sourcing provision stated that the gross receipts from sales of tangible personal property are sitused to Ohio “if the property is received in this state by the purchaser.”  (Emphasis added.)

The Board agreed with the taxpayer and held that the motor vehicle sale gross receipts were properly sitused outside of Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court interprets the term “receive” to “include the taking of ‘delivery.’” Thus, if a person takes “delivery” of tangible personal property outside of Ohio, that person is “receiv[ing]” it outside of Ohio for CAT situsing purposes. The Board found the statutory language to be “plain and unambiguous.” Because the “entire vehicle sales transaction (i.e., purchase, receipt, and delivery)” occurred in West Virginia, the Board concluded that the Ohio customers “received” their vehicles in West Virginia, not Ohio.

The Board also rejected the Department’s argument that the motor vehicle sales were sourced to Ohio pursuant to an additional sourcing provision: “In the case of delivery of the tangible personal property by motor carrier or by other means of transportation, the place at which such property is ultimately received after all transportation has been completed shall be considered the place where the purchaser receives the property.” Because the taxpayer had already delivered the vehicles to the customers in West Virginia, they “could not have been ‘delivered’ again once Ohio customers returned to Ohio.” In other words, “once [the automobile dealer] relinquished physical possession of the new or used car to the buyer in West Virginia, [the automobile dealer] could not again deliver physical possession of the vehicles for a second time by transportation or otherwise.”

Straub Nissan LLC v. Harris, Case No. 2022-422 (Ohio Bd. Tax App. Oct. 23, 2024).

On December 2, several members of our SALT team will present at TEI/IPT Silicon Valley SALT Conference on December 2.

Speakers and topics include:

  • Michele Borens, Jeff Friedman, Charles Capouet – 2024 Litigation and Legislative Roundup
    • Jeff Friedman, Tim Gustafson – To Pay or Not to Pay, That is the Question!
    • Michele Borens, Liz Cha – Are You Gross? Net?
    • Michele Borens, Liz Cha – The Empire (State) Strikes Back: A New York Update for Non-New York Based Businesses
    • Jeff Friedman, Tim Gustafson and Charles Capouet – Uniformly Not Uniform

In addition, members of our SALT team are pleased to present a SALT Day program for TEI’s Cincinnati-Columbus Chapter on December 5 in Grove City, OH.

Speakers and topics include:

  • Jonathan Feldman, Tim Gustafson– Income Tax Update
    • Todd Betor, Alla Raykin– A Dash of SALT on the Deal: State and Local Tax Implications of Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Charlie Kearns, Madison Ball– Navigating remote work challenges: 2024 update and impacts in Ohio
    • Alla Raykin, Tim Gustafson–To Pay or Not to Pay, That is the Question!
    • Charlie Kearns, Madison Ball– Uniformly Not Uniform
    • Todd Betor, Jonathan Feldman– Accounting for SALT

Find more information and register here.

Finally, join SALT Partner Jeff Friedman for the TEI New York Chapter’s 61st Annual Tax Symposium. During the full-day program, Jeff’s panel will discuss best practices for managing SALT controversy. Register here.

Calling all trivia fans! Don’t miss out on a chance to show off your SALT knowledge!

We will award prizes for the smartest (and fastest) participants.

This week’s question: Which Midwest state’s lawmakers proposed a bill to grant a tax credit to employers providing paid parental leave to their employees?

E-mail your response to SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com.

The prize for the first response to today’s question is a $25 UBER Eats gift card. This week’s answer will be included in our SALT Shaker Weekly Digest, distributed on Saturday. Be sure to check back then!

Courts have formulated more than a dozen legal canons of statutory construction specific to tax.

In the October 2024 installment of “A Pinch of SALT” in Tax Notes State, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Jeff Friedman, John Ormonde and Kelly Donigan examine the application of statutory construction principles to conflicts involving allocation and apportionment statutes.

Because an income tax must contain an allocation and apportionment regime to comply with the due process and commerce clauses of the US Constitution, these regimes should be treated as imposition statutes and not exemptions or deductions.

Read the full article here.

Calling all trivia fans! Don’t miss out on a chance to show off your SALT knowledge!

We will award prizes for the smartest (and fastest) participants.

This week’s question: Colorado Governor Jared Polis wants to offer a film tax credit to attract what annual film festival to the state?

E-mail your response to SALTonline@eversheds-sutherland.com.

The prize for the first response to today’s question is a $25 UBER Eats gift card. This week’s answer will be included in our SALT Shaker Weekly Digest, distributed on Saturday. Be sure to check back then!