Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Jessica Eisenmenger and Tim Gustafson
The Supreme Court of Mississippi held that a county had the right to a jury trial in an appeal of the county’s ad valorem tax assessment. In reaching its decision, the court relied on centuries-old customs, practices and decisions upholding the right to a jury trial in tax assessment…
By Robert Merten and Madison Barnett
The Oregon Tax Court held that Oregon was not constitutionally prohibited from determining the applicable graduated income tax rate of a part-year resident individual based on the individual’s full-year taxable income, even though a majority of that income was earned outside of the state. The taxpayer argued that applying…
By Nick Kump and Scott Wright
The Louisiana Court of Appeal held that income derived from diagnostic testing of Louisiana patients’ blood samples and other medical specimens performed in Texas should be sourced to Texas for corporate income tax apportionment purposes. The taxpayer, which operates a multistate network of laboratories where it performs medically prescribed…
By Hanish Patel and Eric Coffill
The Supreme Court of Virginia held that a city could not impose its consumer utility tax on the natural gas consumed by an electric power company solely for the purpose of generating electricity. Virginia localities are authorized to impose the tax on consumers of natural gas provided by a…
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 Nick Kump and Marc Simonetti
The Georgia Department of Revenue (Department) released a letter ruling stating that a taxpayer’s sales of computer software and related services were not subject to sales and use tax. The taxpayer sold bundled packages for a single price that included electronically transferred computer software with corresponding updates and upgrades…
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…
Even those of us who practice in the state and local tax (SALT) field have been exposed to federal judicial tax doctrines. Many have been applied by state courts in SALT matters and have even been codified by some states. Read about the origins of the following four lesser known doctrines, and learn how these doctrines…
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued two advisory opinions determining that surplus lines insurance companies are subject to uncapped insurance franchise tax instead of premium tax.
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