On June 28, 2016, a federal court gave a major victory to Temple-Inland Inc. in its dispute with Delaware, declaring some of the state’s most egregious unclaimed property audit practices to be unconstitutional executive action. The court found that the state, and its contract auditors, waited more than two decades to perform an audit, ignored the applicable statute of limitations, failed to notify the company that records needed to be kept beyond standard retention periods,…
Beginning for tax year 2021, California will require businesses that file certain California tax returns to report their California unclaimed property filing history. Specifically, most 2021 California business tax returns filed with the Franchise Tax Board (e.g., Forms 100, 565, and 568) have been updated to ask whether the entity has previously filed an unclaimed property Holder Remit Report with the State Controller’s Office, and if so, the date of the last report and the…
States continue to provide relief in response to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This week, numerous states responded to the federal income tax filing extension, and we expect additional states to respond in the coming days. Some states are also offering relief for non-income business taxes, and much of the relief is limited to small- to mid-size businesses. Furthermore, COVID-19 is causing complications in property tax assessments, payments, and appeals.
Since our previous blog post, several more states have provided tax relief by extending filing and payment deadlines in response to the COVID-19 (“coronavirus”) outbreak. However, numerous state tax departments are also canceling in-person customer service, which could make it more difficult for taxpayers to receive timely answers to their filing questions. We are also seeing the continued impact of COVID-19 on state and local tax litigation as more state courts and administrative tribunals adjourn hearing dates or move to conduct certain proceedings remotely.