Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
On December 31, 2015, the California Supreme Court closed the book on California’s Multistate Tax Compact election saga, unanimously holding that the Compact is not a binding contract among its members and the State was not bound by its provisions before the State’s repeal of the Compact in 2012.
Citing the Multistate Tax Commission’s amicus…
By Evan Hamme and Timothy Gustafson
The California State Board of Equalization (Board) unanimously rejected Craigslist, Inc.’s (Craigslist) argument that California’s adoption of a factor-presence nexus regime in 2009 reflected pre-existing federal constitutional nexus standards pursuant to which Craigslist would be “subject to tax” in jurisdictions where it did not have a physical presence, and…
In another taxpayer victory, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division held that an intangible holding company was not required to throw out any of its so-called “nowhere receipts” from an affiliated tobacco company in computing the denominator of its receipts factor. In Lorillard Licensing Company LLC v Dir., Div. of Taxation, the court …
By Nick Kump and Timothy Gustafson
The Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission overturned a $2.4 million assessment against an intellectual property (IP) holding company, ruling that the company’s income-producing activities for Wisconsin sales factor purposes – IP licensing and related activities – occurred entirely outside of the state. The taxpayer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the…
By Zack Atkins and Timothy Gustafson
The Oregon Tax Court held that the Multistate Tax Compact (Compact), which allows for an equally weighted, three-factor apportionment formula, was an illusory contract and its terms had been effectively disabled by the Oregon Legislature. The statute in question, ORS 314.606, provides that in case of conflict the provisions…
By Charles Capouet and Timothy Gustafson
The Oregon Supreme Court held that an out-of-state taxpayer providing voice and data telecommunications services over a global network was required to use a transactional approach to source sales of other than tangible personal property for Oregon sales factor purposes under Oregon’s costs of performance method. Sales are sourced…
By Michael Penza and Timothy Gustafson
The Utah State Tax Commission ruled that a Utah-based manufacturing and marketing company’s payroll factor must include compensation paid to a third-party “professional employer organization” (PEO) pursuant to a lease agreement for employees working at the taxpayer’s Utah facilities. The employees signed employment agreements with the PEO, and the…
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in First Marblehead Corp. v. Commissioner of Revenue and remanded the case back to the court for reconsideration in light of the holding in Comptroller of the Treasury v. Wynne. In First Marblehead, a taxpayer was denied the ability…
By Mike Kerman and Madison Barnett
The Indiana Tax Court granted summary judgment to Rent-A-Center East, Inc. (RAC), finding that the Department of Revenue’s determination that RAC and two affiliates should have filed a combined return was improper. This case was on remand from a prior Indiana Supreme Court ruling (please see our prior coverage…
By Mike Kerman and Open Weaver Banks
The Washington Court of Appeals held that for local business and occupation (B&O) tax purposes, a securities broker with employees in its Seattle office must source to Seattle the receipts from commissions for services performed by the employees via phone and Internet. Under the city ordinance implementing the…
