franchise tax

Subscribe to franchise tax

The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed and vacated the Tax Tribunal’s order and held that merged entities that are a unitary business group (“UBG”) must be treated as single entity for purposes of calculating the franchise tax and that corporate income tax credits carried over to the new entity. The taxpayer, Comerica, Inc., was a…

The New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal affirmed a New York State Division of Tax Appeals determination denying a refund claim to a taxpayer that sought to apply the income sourcing rules for registered broker-dealers to receipts from its separate investment advisory business. The taxpayer structured its broker-dealer operations and investment advisory operations into two…

On January 8, 2020, the Court of Appeal of Louisiana partly affirmed and partly reversed a district court’s rejection of the Louisiana Department of Revenue’s franchise tax audit changes for a taxpayer that owned and operated, through subsidiaries and an affiliate, casinos and horse-racing facilities. Following an audit, the Department made numerous adjustments to the…

The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the Court of Claims and held that an assessment of additional franchise tax on a bank was invalid because the Department of Revenue had improperly calculated the tax base of the bank’s unitary business group (“UBG”). The Michigan Business Tax Act provides that, for a financial institution, the “tax…

Consistent with a prior decision of a sister appellate court, Texas’ Texarkana Court of Appeals held that the sale of telecommunication products and signals constitutes the sale of a service for purposes of Texas’ franchise tax. The taxpayer sold electrical, light and radio signals to customers through copper wire, fiber-optic cable and leased telephone lines.…

The New York Division of Tax Appeals denied a refund claim to a taxpayer that sought to apply the income sourcing rules for registered broker-dealers to receipts from its separate investment advisory business. The taxpayer structured its broker-dealer operations and investment advisory operations into two separate single-member limited liability companies (LLCs). The taxpayer claimed that…

The Texas Comptroller determined that a taxpayer was required to include in its sales factor numerator its receipts from sales of bunker fuel oil to foreign ships in Texas ports. The taxpayer argued that the sales were not from “business done” in Texas even though the oil was delivered to ships in Texas ports. The…

A New York State Administrative Law Judge ruled that the retroactive application of amendments to the state’s Empire Zones statute—disqualifying a taxpayer from the tax reduction credits—did not violate the taxpayer’s constitutional due process rights. Acknowledging that the stated public purposes of curtailing perceived abuses and raising revenue were better accomplished in prospective legislation, the…

The Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit held that a taxpayer was not entitled to a refund of franchise tax under an interpretation of the franchise tax law by the Department of Revenue that was struck down in Utelcom, Inc. v. Bridges, 2010-0654 (La. App. 1 Cir. 9/12/2011); 77 So. 3d 39. In Bannister…