Noell Industries, Inc. v. Idaho State Tax CommissionThe Multistate Tax Commission has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Idaho Supreme Court's decision in Noell Industries, Inc. v. Idaho State Tax Commission, 470 P.3d 1176 (Idaho 2020). In its decision, the Idaho Supreme Court held that Idaho could not tax a holding company on any portion of its gain from the sale of a multistate business that had operated in that state for almost two decades. In its amicus brief, the Commission pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has never considered the application of the unitary business principle to a business enterprise that includes a holding company, resulting in a gap in Due Process Clause jurisprudence, and that the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision contributes to a growing conflict among state courts and administrative tribunals. Read more
Mobile Workforce Proposals – A ComparisonIn 2011, the MTC developed model legislation addressing the issue of workers temporarily in the state for short time-periods (“mobile workers”). This was a response to federal legislation that would have preempted state law and which contained provisions that would have created administrative problem for the states. Recently, the Council On State Taxation (COST), long a proponent of this federal legislation, put forward a draft state legislative proposal. COST’s proposal contains provisions similar to the federal proposal. Read more
MTC Responds to OECD Public Consultation DocumentThe Multistate Tax Commission responded to the public consultation document that asks for comment on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2020), Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation – Report on Pillar One Blueprint: Item III - the nexus standard, and Item IV – the revenue sourcing rules. The MTC has extensive experience with both nexus and sourcing issues through our uniformity efforts and this submission — masterfully prepared by Uniformity Counsel Helen Hecht — provides the OECD a summary of that experience along with information on the approach that the MTC has recommended to its members.Read more
Georgetown University Law Center Partners with MTCGeorgetown Law and the Multistate Tax Commission (“MTC”) have partnered to provide a 20 percent tuition discount to state and local tax government attorneys and qualified non-attorney tax professionals who matriculate in the 2021-2022 LL.M., MSL, or SALT Certificate Distance Learning programs. Read more
Foreign Commerce Clause Discrimination: Revisiting Kraft after WayfairIn his article published earlier this year in Baylor Law Review, Michael Fatale explores the import of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kraft General Foods, Inc., v. Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance in light of the federal tax changes popularly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”). The TCJA extended the definition of federal taxable income to so-called “deemed repatriation income” and global intangible low-taxed income or “GILTI.” Some have claimed that Kraft restricts the states with respect to taxing this income. Fatale’s article posits that these readings of Kraft are incorrect, that Kraft was incorrectly decided, and that it is overdue for judicial reconsideration as Quill was in Wayfair. Read more
National Geographic — Still Relevant After Wayfair?In this article, Richard Cram, MTC director of the National Nexus Program, argues that the decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, which overturned the physical presence requirement in Quill v. North Dakota and National Bellas Hess v. Illinois, did not disturb the holding in National Geographic Society v. California that a state may impose its use tax collection obligation on an out-of-state seller that has physical presence in that state, even when such physical presence is unrelated to the sales activity on which the use tax collection obligation is imposed. National Geographic remains good law in determining nexus when the out-of-state seller’s economic presence falls below the state’s economic nexus threshold.Read more
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