Jones Walker SALT Team member John Fletcher recently presented at the Council on State Taxation’s Sales Tax Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. John’s panel, “Hot Topics – East of the Mississippi” covered litigation and legislative issues for companies with extensive operations east of the Mississippi River. Topics included the controversial recent trend by states to impose … Continue Reading
JW SALT Team member, John Fletcher, published an article in the Mississippi Business Journal on how the US Supreme Court hearing of South Dakota vs. Wayfair will affect internet industries and small businesses in Mississippi. The Court wrestled over whether it should abandon or uphold its longstanding physical presence requirement and, if oral arguments were any indication, … Continue Reading
“Substantial economic presence” nexus standard formally embodied in regulation. As expected after recently having filed an economic impact statement, the Mississippi Department of Revenue on November 1 filed its final remote seller use tax regulation with the Secretary of State. The new regulation will be effective December 1, 2017, and contains numerous changes from the … Continue Reading
Files Questionable Economic Impact Statement with Secretary of State On Tuesday, the Mississippi Department of Revenue filed an economic impact statement with the Secretary of State addressing its proposed regulation adopting use tax economic nexus standards and remote seller collection obligations. Readers may recall the Department issued the proposed regulation in January and held a … Continue Reading
In October 2016, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Mississippi Department of Revenue v. AT&T Corporation, concluding the state’s dividend exclusion statute violated the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. The statute, Miss. Code Ann. Section 27-7-15(4)(i), unconstitutionally discriminated against interstate commerce by excluding from Mississippi gross income any dividends received … Continue Reading
In response to the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, parts of the United States have been declared as major disaster areas by the federal government. As a result, numerous states have enacted delayed filing and payment periods for individuals and businesses located in these major disaster areas. Louisiana has joined this growing list with … Continue Reading
Department of Revenue Now Authorized to Hire Auditors and Expert Witnesses on Contingency Fees $1,000,000 Appropriation to Fund Contingency Contracts RFPs Quickly Issued for Transfer Pricing Audits and Underreported Cash Sales The Mississippi Legislature recently authorized the Department of Revenue to hire third party tax auditors and expert witnesses and to pay them contingency fees … Continue Reading
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant announced Tuesday afternoon on Facebook that he would call a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to begin June 5. The 2017 regular session ended earlier this year without having approved 2018 fiscal year budgets for the Department of Transportation or the Attorney General’s office, and the special session is intended … Continue Reading
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has announced the appointment of Herb Frierson as the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue for Mississippi effective July 1, 2016. Prior to being appointed Commissioner, Mr. Frierson served as a Republican member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, representing District 106. In his future role as Commissioner, Mr. Frierson will oversee the Mississippi … Continue Reading
State & Local Tax Partners, Jesse R. “Jay” Adams, III, William M. Backstrom,Jr., John F. Fletcher, and Kimberly Lewis Robinson, were all quoted in the recent Bloomberg BNA article, “Corporate Taxpayers Face Changes in Louisiana, Mississippi, Attorneys Say.” The partners discuss how legislative sessions in 2014 and 2015 and some notable cases have brought significant changes … Continue Reading
Ready, set, hut! The Jones Walker LLP State & Local Tax team is back with a day-long program on October 8, 2015, titled SALT Gameday: Key Plays in State & Local Tax. The team will tackle some big issues in the morning, including state and local tax procedure and the legislative developments in Louisiana and … Continue Reading
The Mississippi Supreme Court last week in Vincent J. Castigliola, Jr. v. Mississippi Department of Revenue, No. 2013-SA-001574-SCT (April 30, 2015), reversed a lower court judgment which had upheld the Department of Revenue’s imposition of use tax upon the out-of-state purchase of a yacht by a Mississippi resident. In doing so the Court provided taxpayers with very … Continue Reading
The Hinds County Chancery Court on March 20th invalidated the nexus-based restrictions contained within Mississippi’s dividend exclusion statute, finding the provisions violated the Commerce Clause. A copy of the Court’s Order can be found here. The Mississippi Department of Revenue and the taxpayer, AT&T, had stipulated that the statute, Miss. Code Section 27-7-15(4)(i), exempts from a … Continue Reading
Bill Backstrom was recently quoted in a Law360 article entitled State Tax Cases to Watch in 2015. In the article, Bill, a partner in Jones Walker’s New Orleans office and the Tax & Estates practice group leader, discusses the need for clarity in tax reporting positions following the decision in Vodafone Americas Holdings Inc. v. Farr, which is currently … Continue Reading
The Hinds County Chancery Court recently ruled that the Mississippi Supreme Court’s widely-discussed decision in Equifax, Inc. v. Mississippi Department of Revenue is a double-edged blade and, much to the Department of Revenue’s chagrin, cuts sharply in both directions. Miss. Dept. of Rev. v. Hotel and Restaurant Supply, Civil Action No. G2013-820 S/2, Hinds County Chancery … Continue Reading
Welcome! If you are reading this, you likely have an interest in state and local taxation (“SALT”). As part of our ongoing efforts to inform clients, colleagues, associates and friends in as timely a manner as possible about current events involving the SALT world, we, the Jones Walker SALT Team, have started a blog. In deciding … Continue Reading
Mississippi taxpayers are seeing green! On August 7, 2014, the Mississippi Supreme Court invalidated a sales and use tax regulation in Mississippi Department of Revenue v. Mississippi Power Company, No. 2013-CA-01234-SCT (Miss. Aug. 7, 2014). In that case, the Mississippi Department of Revenue (the “MDOR”) attempted to impose more restrictive requirements in the regulation, Miss. Reg. 35.IV.7.03(302), than the terms … Continue Reading
