Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Christopher Chang and Andrew Appleby
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld a broad definition of business income, adopting both the transactional and functional tests. The Court of Appeals stated that business income includes both income arising from transactions in a taxpayer’s regular course of business (the “transactional test”) and income from the acquisition, management,…
By Kathryn Pittman and Andrew Appleby
The Colorado Department of Revenue determined that sales of digital images, whether delivered electronically or via tangible medium, are sales of tangible personal property for income tax apportionment purposes. The taxpayer was engaged in the business of providing digital images to commercial and government customers and provided such images…
By Maria Todorova and Timothy Gustafson
The Mississippi Supreme Court denied the taxpayer’s motion for rehearing in Equifax, Inc. v. Mississippi Dep’t of Revenue, a case on which we previously reported. The denial leaves undisturbed its June holding, reversing the Mississippi Court of Appeals’ decision, which held the taxpayer bears the burden of…
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 Derek Takehara and Andrew Appleby
The Virginia Tax Commissioner determined that the Department of Taxation was permitted to make net operating loss deduction (NOLD) adjustments for taxable years outside the statute of limitations because the adjustments were necessary to determine the correct federal taxable income for the taxable years at issue. The taxpayer, an…
The Indiana Department of Revenue determined that a taxpayer and its two affiliated entities were not required to report their income using a “separate accounting” method because the Department’s audit staff failed to prove the standard apportionment formula did not fairly reflect the taxpayer’s business activities in Indiana. The taxpayer, a manufacturer…
By Todd Betor
A nonresident corporation requested a ruling from the Virginia Tax Commissioner as to whether the corporation was required to withhold Virginia state income tax and pay Virginia unemployment insurance for an employee who worked and resided in Virginia. The employee’s in-state activities consisted solely of performing legal services on behalf of the…
By David Pope and Andrew Appleby
The New Jersey Tax Court denied three summary judgment motions in the ongoing Whirlpool litigation relating to nexus and the “Throwout Rule.” In 2011, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that New Jersey’s Throwout Rule was facially constitutional but narrowed the application of the rule to untaxed receipts from…
