Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Scott Booth and Timothy Gustafson
The Arizona Department of Revenue concluded in a Taxpayer Information Ruling that court-ordered proceeds from a patent infringement lawsuit were properly characterized as business income. The taxpayer held more than 200 patents that it developed or acquired for use in its own manufacturing process or patent licensing activities, one…
By Mary Alexander and Timothy Gustafson
The Arizona Court of Appeals held that a liquidation exception to the functional test for business income does not exist in Arizona and that a taxpayer’s sale of its wholly owned subsidiary was business income. The parties to the sale made an I.R.C. § 338(h)(10) election, which required the…
By Suzanne Palms and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Court of Appeals held that Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. (Home Depot) was required to include in its combined Arizona income tax return the income of an out-of-state subsidiary that licensed the retailer’s trademarks. Relying on R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. v. Arizona Dep’t of Rev., 229…
By Zachary Atkins and Andrew Appleby
An Arizona Department of Revenue hearing officer determined that the gross receipts from a taxpayer’s deemed asset sale pursuant to I.R.C. § 338(h)(10), including gross receipts attributable to goodwill, could not be included in the taxpayer’s sales factor for corporate income tax apportionment purposes. The taxpayer asserted that goodwill…
By Kathryn Pittman and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Department of Revenue determined that a taxpayer providing online backup and restoration services was subject to Arizona’s transaction privilege tax (TPT) after concluding that the receipts from such services were taxable as rentals of prewritten software. The taxpayer provided services that automatically backed up and restored files. As…
By Mary Alexander and Prentiss Willson
The Arizona Department of Revenue determined in a private letter ruling that gross receipts from “renting” prewritten software available online are subject to Arizona’s transaction privilege tax (TPT). The definition of tangible personal property for purposes of the TPT includes the electronic delivery of software. Thus, according to the…
By Suzanne Palms and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Department of Revenue determined that shipping and handling fees were subject to Arizona’s transaction privilege tax (TPT). The company sold tangible personal property via the Internet. The company’s affiliates fulfilled the orders, which included activities such as labeling, packaging and shipping the items via common carrier. The…
By Zachary Atkins and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Court of Appeals held that Cable One, Inc. was subject to central assessment as a telecommunications company because of its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service offering. The court found that Cable One, which provided cable television, Internet access and VoIP services, met the statutory definition of…
Retailers and banks continue to get whipsawed on sales tax bad debt deductions where a retailer provides a private label credit card program in conjunction with a third party bank. The Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals ruled that a retailer was not entitled to a bad debt deduction because it was not the party that…
Almost a year after vetoing similar legislation, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1046 on February 21, 2012, which allows “multistate service providers” to elect to use a market sourcing methodology for purposes of computing the sales factor numerator. The election is limited to taxpayers that derive more than 85% of sales from services…
