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The District of Columbia occupies a unique position among subnational jurisdictions in the United States given its status as a nonstate, federal enclave. The District’s status allows it to impose individual income tax on only residents under the district clause of the US Constitution, the Home Rule Act of 1973, and implementing statutes that are…

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced on October 27th that his office filed suit against a delivery service company, claiming that the company’s workers are employees, not independent contractors.[1] The AG argues that the Company’s delivery drivers “bear all the hallmarks of employee status.”[2] This lawsuit follows another tax-related complaint filed by…

On August 31, 2022, the D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced that his office was pursuing an action against an individual, Michael Saylor, for allegedly owing individual income tax to the District as a resident under a “fraudulent scheme.” The Attorney General is also pursuing a violation of the False Claims Act related to his…

The District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings held that the two financial institution subsidiaries of Petitioner, a credit and charge card issuer company, should have included in their payroll factor denominator only the payroll attributable to the financial institution entities. In other words, when calculating their payroll factor, Petitioner’s financial institution subsidiaries should have…

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…

In a rapidly escalating matter of concern to all District business taxpayers, the D.C. Council again will consider B23-35, the D.C. False Claims Amendment Act of 2020, which would expand the D.C. False Claims Act to tax matters above specified thresholds. The Council will review the committee mark-up tomorrow, November 17th. First reading would…

On July 28, 2020, the D.C. Council approved the Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Support Act of 2020 (“BSA”), which establishes the budget’s tax provision changes.  The prior week, the D.C. Council approved the Fiscal Year 2021 Local Budget Act of 2020, which sets the budget’s expenditures.  This year’s most notable event was the advertising…

States continue to consider tax legislation to balance their budgets in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 27, 2020, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed D.C. Act 23-326, the Coronavirus Support Emergency Amendment Act of 2020. In part, this act limits net operating loss carryovers. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, corporations, unincorporated…

On December 31, 2018, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser signed B22-1070, the Internet Sales Tax Emergency Amendment Act of 2018 (Emergency Act). As of January 1, 2019, the District of Columbia now subjects digital goods to the 6% sales tax rate and imposes Wayfair-style economic nexus sales tax collection requirements. As of April 1,…