Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Chris Mehrmann and Charlie Kearns
A New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department administrative hearing officer found that a seller could not use equitable recoupment as a defense to offset gross receipts (sales) tax assessed on its sales of software licenses. In support of its equitable recoupment argument, the seller maintained that third-party lenders that…
By Nicole Boutros and Marc Simonetti
The Illinois Appellate Court held that a defendant out-of-state retailer was not liable under the state’s False Claims Act because it conducted a good faith inquiry into its use tax collection obligations for both its Internet and catalog sales. The defendant had franchisees operating in Illinois and sold products…
By Alla Raykin and Tim Gustafson
The Colorado Department of Revenue determined that energy purchased by a television broadcaster is exempt from sales tax when used to transmit broadcasts, but taxable when used for other office purposes. Colorado imposes sales tax on electricity and natural gas for commercial consumption. The Department analyzed possible exemptions applicable…
The Louisiana Department of Revenue has proposed a new regulation expansively interpreting Louisiana’s recently enacted related party expense addback statute.
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By Ted Friedman and Madison Barnett
The Maryland Tax Court held that the Comptroller’s policy of not allowing carryforwards of unsubtracted exempt federal obligation interest violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Under the Comptroller’s policy, interest earned on Maryland obligations is subtracted in its entirety when computing Maryland taxable income. As a result…
Sutherland SALT releases the third edition of its 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 identifies trends by issue, state and forum as they…
By Chelsea Marmor and Andrew Appleby
The Kentucky Court of Appeals held that a Kentucky statute, which retroactively reduced vendors’ 1% deduction of the sales tax collected and remitted to Kentucky to $1,500 in any monthly reporting period, did not violate the Kentucky Constitution. Wal-Mart argued that the statute violated the Kentucky Constitution because the…
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…
