By Samantha Trencs and Carley Roberts

In a private letter ruling, the Colorado Department of Revenue stated that an affiliated group of corporations engaged in distinctly different commercial activities requiring different apportionment methodologies under Colorado law could use the allocation and apportionment methodology set forth in two previous private letter rulings (PLR-11-002 and PLR 15-005) to calculate the group’s combined income tax liability. Under the rulings, the Department set forth the following steps to calculate the affiliated group’s Colorado income tax liability: (1) eliminate all intercompany transactions; (2) separately calculate the modified federal taxable income for each subgroup; (3) separately allocate income and loss and apportion any apportionable business income or loss using the respective apportionment methodology and factors for each subgroup; (4) add together all business income or loss allocated and apportioned to Colorado for each subgroup to produce the aggregated Colorado tax base; and (5) apply the income tax rate to the aggregated tax base. The Department also noted it is in the process of adopting a new methodology via amendment to its administrative rules and that once these rules become effective, the affiliated group must calculate its combined income tax liability consistent with the amendment. Colo. Dep’t. of Rev., PLR-17-001 (Apr. 27, 2017).