Governor Hochul rang in the new year by vetoing a bill that expanded the New York State False Claims Act (“FCA”) to permit claims against non-filers. Specifically, on December 31, 2021, Governor Hochul vetoed Senate Bill S4730 (Assembly Bill A2543), explaining in Veto Message No. 83 that “the language in the bill is broader than impacting only non-filers, and would implicate more tax filing controversies to the False Claims Act than just non-filers. This would…
In an order released in July 2021, the Illinois Tax Tribunal denied a taxpayerâs motion for summary judgment in a âunitary businessâ case, finding that there were disputed issues of fact as to whether the taxpayer was engaged in a unitary business with a company that the taxpayer sold. See Christopher v. Illinois Depât of Rev., 19 TT 131 (Ill. Tax Trib. Nov. 24, 2020, released July 2021). The taxpayer, T. Christopher Holding Company (âHolding Companyâ), claimed that it was not unitary with Vogue International, LLC (âOperating Companyâ), and thus its gain from the sale of Operating Company could not be included in Holding Companyâs Illinois business income under U.S. constitutional principles and Illinois law. However, the Tribunal found that the Illinois Department of Revenue (âDepartmentâ) had presented sufficient evidence to establish a disputed issue of material fact that rendered summary judgment on this issue inappropriate.
Connecticut legislative leaders recently announced support for a digital advertising tax (âConnecticut Digital Advertising Taxâ) proposed by the Connecticut Joint Committee on Finance, Revenue and Bonding (the âFinance Committeeâ). Connecticut joins Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas, among others, as states with concrete digital advertising tax proposals on the table (and in Marylandâs case, an enacted law).
State legislators in the Massachusetts House of Representatives recently introduced four bills on the taxation of digital advertising services. Two of these bills propose a tax on digital advertising services, a third bill would set up a âspecial commissionâ to study how to generate revenue from digital advertising, and a fourth bill appears to be a placeholder for some action on digital advertising taxation. This makes Massachusetts one of the latest states to join the wave of state digital advertising tax proposals targeting large digital advertising service providers. We have previously covered Marylandâs digital advertising tax, the first in the nation to become law, and various other statesâ pending digital and data tax proposals, including New York and Texas. Below, we summarize and compare the various Massachusetts proposals.