Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
By Evan Hamme and Marc Simonetti
The Texas Comptroller upheld a taxpayer’s separate Franchise Tax return filing position, rejecting an Administrative Law Judge’s finding that the taxpayer and its affiliate shared a strong centralized management structure that required a unitary combined report. Although the companies were commonly owned and shared an administrator, the Comptroller found…
By Elizabeth Cha and Charlie Kearns
In Hegar v. CheckFree Serv. Corp., a Texas Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision and held that the taxpayer’s online bill pay service was not a taxable data processing service for Texas sales tax purposes. Based on the trial court’s uncontested factual findings, the taxpayer provided…
By Elizabeth Cha and Scott Wright
The Texas Court of Appeals held that a seismic data gathering company was entitled to a cost of goods sold (COGS) deduction for costs of labor and materials incurred to acquire and process seismic data for its clients. Pursuant to Tex. Tax Code § 171.1012(i), a taxpayer may include…
By Evan Hamme and Marc Simonetti
The Texas Court of Appeals held that sovereign immunity bars Machete’s Chop Shop’s declaratory judgment action because Machete failed to plead that the Texas Film Commission acted ultra vires when it denied Machete’s grant application for the 2010 film, Machete. Machete alleged that the Texas Film Commission lacked authority…
By Samantha Trencs and Open Weaver Banks
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and the New York Courts have treated a former in-house attorney turned whistleblower very differently—Texas made a substantial payment to the individual, and New York kicked him to the proverbial curb.
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts paid $117,000 to David Danon…
In his State of the State address at the beginning of the year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott tasked the Legislature with enacting meaningful business tax relief. The Legislature responded by reducing the franchise (also called the margin) tax rate and creating new exemptions and incentives for sales tax. At the same time, however, the Legislature…
By Olga Goldberg and Andrew Appleby
The Texas Court of Appeals held that a taxpayer was not entitled to elect the Multistate Tax Compact (MTC) three-factor formula because the Texas franchise (margin) tax is not an “income tax,” as defined in the MTC. Specifically, the court ruled that the franchise tax is not…
By Olga Goldberg and Madison Barnett
The Texas Court of Appeals ruled that Rent-A-Center is primarily engaged in retail trade and thus qualifies for the lower 0.5% franchise tax rate available to retailers and wholesalers. The Comptroller argued that the rent-to-own business is a rental service rather than the sale of merchandise in a retail…
By Madison Barnett and Jonathan Feldman
Eight months ago, the Georgia Tax Tribunal held in Rosenberg that the Texas franchise tax (TFT) is a tax “on or measured by income” that qualifies for the pass-through entity owner’s subtraction modification available to individual Georgia residents (See prior coverage). Practitioners have been anxiously awaiting word…
By Olga Jane Goldberg and Open Weaver Banks
A Texas court ruled that natural gas stored in an underground reservoir is subject to property tax, whether or not the gas is in interstate commerce. Without actually deciding whether the natural gas was in interstate commerce, the Houston Court of Appeals (1st District) held that tax…
