- Major legislative developments
- Nexus
- Combined reporting
- Discretionary authority
- Tax base
- Allocation and apportionment
- Miscellaneous developments
- State income taxes remain to be deceptively simple and endlessly complicated
- The 6 most used words in the state income tax consulting world are: "generally" and "it depends on the state"
- In the world of state income tax, there are many battles in the never ending war; meaning, you win some, you lose some (i.e., tug of war, musical chairs)
- The states are focused on increasing taxes on "out-of-state" taxpayers
- Economic presence is enough to create nexus in some states
- Combined reporting continues to be popular
- Market-based sourcing of sales other than sales of tangible property continues to spread like wildfire
- The burden of proof regarding changing apportionment methods, forcing combined returns, and ultimately, tax assessments switches between the taxpayer and the state like a "teeter-totter"
- The add-back of intangible expenses paid to related parties is still scrutinized, but exceptions may apply
- Single-sales factor apportionment will soon be the only apportionment method??
- State amnesty programs still exist, but may not be better than a good old Voluntary Disclosure Program
(I know, I am assuming that you think about multistate income taxes)
3 comments:
Brian, all good points. I would add 'statute of limitations' since many states (including voluntary disclosure programs) have a look back that exceeds the statute for claiming a refund in the state(s) originally filed. Then if you add in the federal AMT factor for pass through state tax deductiblity, getting caught can become overly expensive.
Brian, all good points. I think of "statute of limitations" since the look back period (to include Voluntary Disclosure Programs) usually exceeds the refund statutes resulting in double taxation (or excessive taxation)which when added to AMT for pass through entities can become very expensive.
Great summary of what's happening in our tax world.
Along with the unitary changes, states are also getting rid of a lot of tax credits as well. The opportunities for tax planning continue to narrow.
Nancy
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