The dust is beginning to settle from the 2018 midterm elections. Though the nation has been focused this week on the federal House and Senate races, several state ballot measures have significant state and local tax implications. Read full Legal Alert…

The Texas Comptroller ruled that a taxpayer, which provided education and networking services for the property management industry, was not providing “information services,” but rather a non-taxable service. Taxable information services involve “furnishing general or specialized news or other current information” or “electronic data retrieval or research.” Tex. Tax Code § 151.0101(a)(10), 151.0038; Texas Rule 3.342(a)(6). Here, the taxpayer’s online courses were interactive, involved an instructor and contained tools for student assessments. Because the taxpayer…

The Minnesota Supreme Court held that the state’s gross receipts tax on prescription drugs did not violate the Due Process or Commerce Clauses when applied to transactions between out-of-state pharmacies and in-state customers, reversing the Minnesota Tax Court. After concluding that Minnesota’s “legend drug tax” legally applied to the taxpayer under the imposition statute (Minn. Stat. § 295.52, Subd. 4(a)), because the taxpayer was “a person who receives legend drugs for resale or use in…

The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) created a new economic development program designed to spur investment in certain low-income communities designated as “Opportunity Zones.” The new federal tax provisions offer significant opportunities to defer, and in some instances permanently reduce, gains that are invested in Opportunity Zones, as well as to abate gains earned post-investment. This legal alert discusses the state and local tax considerations for taxpayers taking advantage of the federal Opportunity…

This is the eleventh edition of the Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard, and the third edition of 2018. Each quarter, we tally the results of what we deem to be significant taxpayer wins and losses and analyze those results. This edition of the SALT Scoreboard includes a discussion of California combined reporting, insights regarding the Washington bad debt deduction, and a spotlight on apportionment cases. View our Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard results from the third quarter…

Meet Teddy and Thai, the precious pooches of tax industry legend and former TEI president Neil Traubenberg and his wife, Joan. Sixteen-year-old Teddy and eight-year-old Thai were rescued from shelters and now hail from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (hometown of Georgia O’Keefe, for all you trivia buffs). Teddy, a Yorkiepoo, was once small enough to fit in the palm of Neil’s hand. Now too “mature” for his puppy antics of snacking on carrots and barking at…