Trevor Mauck, Kent Strader, David Simon-Fajardo, Author at SALT Savvy

California Continues to Challenge Economic Substance and Business Purpose

October 8, 2024 By Trevor Mauck, Kent Strader and David Simon-Fajardo 3 Mins Read

In Matter of Gatewood Corp, OTA Case No. 19105425 (July 3, 2024), the California Office of Tax Appeals (“OTA”) concluded that Gatewood Corporation’s (“Gatewood”) transfer of stock did not entitle it to a $10 million deduction because the transaction lacked economic substance and was for the purpose of tax avoidance, resulting in $831,398 additional tax. The California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) conceded a $332,559 non-economic substance transaction (“NEST”) penalty that it had originally imposed. In…

Maryland State Judge Strikes Down Digital Ad Tax

October 19, 2022 By Maria Eberle, Ted Bots, Lindsay LaCava, Stephen Long, Mark Yopp, Dmitrii Gabrielov and David Simon-Fajardo 2 Mins Read

On October 17, 2022, a Maryland state judge in the Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County struck down the state’s Digital Advertising Tax (“Digital Ad Tax”) as violating the Internet Tax Freedom Act (“ITFA”) and the Commerce Clause and First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Comcast of California/Maryland/Pennsylvania/Virginia/West Virginia LLC, et al. v. Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland, Case No. C-02-CV-21-000509 (Md. Cir. Ct. Anne Arundel Cnty.). The judge issued her ruling from the…

Wayfair: The Sequel

August 16, 2022 By Lindsay LaCava, Rob Galloway and David Simon-Fajardo 6 Mins Read

A new lawsuit filed by Wayfair, LLC in Jefferson County Court (Colorado) seeks to address a question left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 Wayfair decision that permits states to impose a sales or use tax collection obligation based on an economic nexus threshold: Does this decision apply to locally-administered sales or use taxes? While many localities have asserted that the same economic nexus standards should apply at the state and local levels,…