Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Michael Penza and Todd Lard
The Wyoming Board of Equalization (BOE) held that purchases of chemicals by an electric utility operating coal-fired electric generation plants were subject to sales tax because the utility was not a manufacturer or a processor. The Board found that the utility was not a manufacturer because it did not…
By Samantha Trencs and Amy Nogid
The California Board of Equalization (BOE) voted to adopt an amendment to Ca. Code Regs. tit. 18, § 1525.4, to resolve a statutory ambiguity by clarifying that a taxpayer will qualify for the partial sales and use tax exemption available for certain manufacturing and research and development equipment purchases…
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 a significant rebuff of the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), the California Second District Court of Appeal held that a manufacturer’s sale of software on tangible media was exempt from sales tax under the technology transfer agreement (TTA) statutes. Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. State Bd. of Equalization, No. B257808, 2015 WL 5862533.
By Olga Goldberg and Amy Nogid
The Wyoming State Board of Equalization held that telecommunications equipment shipped to and temporarily stored in Wyoming by a purchaser before being transported by the purchaser for installation in Montana by the manufacturer was not subject to the state’s use tax. Range Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (Range), a Wyoming-based telephone…
By Robert P. Merten III and Timothy A. Gustafson
The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) has issued a rare ruling on residency topics, finding in favor of individual taxpayers on two issues. First, the BOE found that the taxpayers established domicile in Washington three months earlier than the Franchise Tax Board claimed, because they…
By Zachary Atkins and Douglas Mo
A California Court of Appeal held that the sale of real property to a lessee having an original lease term of more than 35 years did not result in a change in ownership triggering reassessment for property tax purposes. Proposition 13 established a 2% per-year ceiling on increases in…
By Douglas Mo
The California Court of Appeal ruled that the County of Los Angeles illegally assessed the possessory interest of the lessee of a building owned by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. The possessory interest was valued pursuant to a special statute that only applied to property owned by a state public retirement…
In a non-precedential, summary decision released May 3, 2012, the California State Board of Equalization (the Board) held that a foreign corporation with only one employee in California was “doing business” in the state and thus was subject to California’s corporation franchise tax. Appeal of Warwick McKinley, Inc., Cal. Bd. of Equal., Jan. 11, 2012 (released May 3, 2012). While California recently expanded its statutory definition of “doing business” in California Revenue and Taxation Code (CRTC) section 23101(b) to include a factor presence nexus test, the Board in Appeal of Warwick McKinley, Inc. focused on CRTC section 23101(a), which defines “doing business” to mean “actively engaging in any transaction for the purpose of financial or pecuniary gain or profit.”Continue Reading California Nexus: Not in My House!
On August 21, the California State Senate passed AB 2323, requiring the State Board of Equalization (BOE) to issue written opinions in cases where the amount in controversy exceeds $500,000. If the Governor signs the legislation as expected, the BOE will be required to publish written, formal memorandum or summary opinions on its website within…
