Shaking things up in state and local tax
Shaking things up in state and local tax
The Michigan Supreme Court held that a franchise fee imposed by the City of East Lansing and charged to customers by the Lansing Board of Water and Light (LBWL) violated Michigan’s constitution because the fee constituted a new local tax that was imposed without voter approval.
Under an agreement with the City, LBWL collected franchise…
The California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District held that the purchase of “discounted” cell phones bundled together with wireless services requires payment of sales tax based on the cell phone’s full price.
Plaintiffs purchased cell phones at a reduced cost, together with wireless services, in a “bundled transaction.” The bundled transaction included…
The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that held that a manufacturer of brake pads used by railroads did not qualify for an exception to the state’s standard three-factor apportionment formula that allows “public utilities” to instead apportion their income using a single-sales factor formula.
In February 2019, the North Carolina Superior…
The New York Department of Taxation and Finance recently published an advisory opinion stating that a taxpayer’s New York corporate income tax filing status should be determined by “what activity [a taxpayer] is principally engaged in” and by whether 50% of its aggregate gross receipts in a taxable reporting period are from such activities. The…
The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board disallowed a deduction for Indiana utility receipts tax (URT) paid by a natural gas distribution operator with operations in Indiana. The deduction for the URT was disallowed, for purposes of computing Massachusetts net income for corporate excise tax, because the URT is not a deductible “transaction tax.” The Board found…
The Texas Comptroller ruled that the purchase of a battery system did not qualify for the manufacturing exemption from Texas sales and use taxes because it was used to store electricity, not manufacture it. The taxpayer operated a wind farm and began a project to participate in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ Fast-Responding Regulation…
