Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
In a personal income tax residency decision that involves a fair amount of schadenfreude, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed a criminal tax evasion conviction of a District domiciliary and denied a motion to suppress documents obtained through extensive summonses issued by the Office of Tax and Revenue.
For background, the taxpayer filed…
The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that an affiliated group of telecommunications companies properly computed the Broadband Investment Credit in determining their franchise and income tax liabilities. The Broadband Credit may be used by a taxpayer to offset up to 50% of the taxpayer’s tax liabilities in a given year. The taxpayers filed separate Mississippi franchise…
On October 7, 2020, the Massachusetts Appeals Court held that a taxpayer’s deduction for payment of the Indiana utility receipts tax (“URT”) was permitted for Massachusetts corporate income tax purposes. The taxpayer who was engaged in natural gas distribution operations in Massachusetts and other states, claimed a deduction for the URT it paid to Indiana…
On Aug. 6, the New York Tax Appeals Tribunal held that royalties received from a foreign affiliate are taxable and are not subject to New York’s royalty income exclusion provision under former Tax Law § 208(9)(o)(3).
Prior to its amendment, Tax Law § 208(9)(o)(3) provided for a deduction for royalties received from a related member…
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently held that a taxpayer was not entitled to alternative apportionment for approximately $3 billion in gains earned from the sale of a business unit.
The taxpayer was a food and beverage manufacturer that sold its frozen pizza division in 2010 for $3.6 billion. The taxpayer took the position on…
The Washington Department of Revenue’s Administrative Revenue and Hearings Division ruled that a company’s audit disqualifies its affiliates from participating in the state’s voluntary disclosure (VDA) program. One of the criteria for participating in the program requires that a business must have never been contacted by the Department for enforcement purposes including audits. The Division…
The Texas Supreme Court held that a defense contractor was entitled to a refund of franchise tax because it had incorrectly sourced certain sales of military aircraft made to foreign governments to Texas on its originally-filed returns for the 2005 through 2007 tax years. The contractor produced military aircraft in Texas, which it sold to…
The Michigan Court of Appeals recently held that the state’s statutory apportionment formula was unconstitutionally distortive as applied to a taxpayer’s Michigan Business Tax (MBT) liability. Therefore, the taxpayer was entitled to use an alternative formula. The court noted that this is an exceptional case where the taxpayer met its burden to show that the…
The New Jersey Tax Court ruled that an individual owner of a single-member limited liability company (“SMLLC”) correctly reported his distributive share of partnership income reported by the SMLCC. The SMLLC owned a 50% interest in a partnership that reported losses. On his New Jersey gross income tax return, the individual owner of the SMLCC…
The Washington Court of Appeals held that a laboratory created by the University of Utah was not a government entity exempt from Washington taxation.
Affirming the lower court’s decision, the Washington Court of Appeals rejected Arup Laboratories, Inc.’s arguments that it should be excluded from paying B&O taxes because it is an “arm of the…
