State & Local
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August 29, 2025
State And Local Tax Takeaways From August
From the Fourth Circuit ruling that a provision in Maryland's digital advertising tax is unconstitutional to new combined reporting rules coming for the District of Columbia, August didn't slow down in the state and local tax arena. Here, Law360 looks at these and other state and local tax highlights from the past month.
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August 29, 2025
Colo. Man Has Extra Time To Redeem Property, Court Says
A Colorado man whose property was subject to a tax auction is allowed to redeem the property outside the three-year statute of limitations, a state appeals court said, finding he had a disability that qualified him for an extended, nine-year time period.
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August 29, 2025
Ore. GOP Starts Session With Calls For Broader Budget Look
Oregon legislators contemplating a $5.8 billion, 10-year transportation funding package should take a broader look at the state's budget in light of a recent report predicting a drop in revenues, Republican lawmakers said Friday.
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August 29, 2025
NY Tenants Claim Cos. Hiked Rents, Abused Tax Exemption
A multifamily real estate company and a property owner were accused by a proposed class in New York state court of illegally raising rents for Long Island City residential tenants by taking advantage of the state's 421-a tax-exemption program.
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August 29, 2025
Wis. Revenues Through Fiscal Year $88M Over Estimate
Wisconsin's general fund revenue collection from June 2024 through July beat estimates by $88 million, according to the state Department of Revenue.
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August 29, 2025
Taxation With Representation: White & Case, Paul Weiss
In this week's Taxation With Representation, private equity firm Sycamore Partners completes its $24 billion acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., telecommunications company EchoStar sells wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T and Keurig Dr Pepper acquires JDE Peet's in a deal that aims to create a "global coffee champion."
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August 29, 2025
Mich. General Revenue Jumps $851M From Last Year
Michigan's general fund revenue from October through July outpaced the same period last year by $851 million, according to the state Budget Office.
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August 28, 2025
Colo. Plugs Budget Gaps, Creates Rules For Future Shortfalls
Colorado enacted a series of tax changes and ordered a halt to certain services Thursday to fill holes that state leaders said were left in the state's budget by this summer's federal tax law, while also adopting requirements for how the governor can address future budget shortfalls.
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August 28, 2025
COST Asks Calif. High Court To Review Utility Tax Case
The California Supreme Court should decide whether AT&T unit Pacific Bell and other telecommunication companies can be taxed at a different property tax rate from nonutilities, the Council on State Taxation told the California justices.
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August 28, 2025
Ore. Worker Owes Income Tax On Wages, Court Says
An Oregon woman owes income tax on wages she earned in the state, the state tax court ruled, rejecting her argument that the tax didn't apply to her because she wasn't an employee of the state.
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August 28, 2025
Hawaii Transient Tax Is Unconstitutional, Cruise Cos. Say
The extension of Hawaii's 11% transient accommodation tax to cruise ship passengers under a new law violates the U.S. Constitution, a group of cruise companies told a U.S. district court.
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August 28, 2025
Ind. Co.'s Software Purchases Tax-Exempt, Dept. Says
A construction company operating in Indiana was wrongly taxed on purchases of computer software, the Department of State Revenue said after the business proved that several of the purchases qualified for the state's software-as-a-service exemption.
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August 28, 2025
Ind. Nonprofit Can't Get Tax Refund On Refreshments
Indiana's tax department correctly denied a nonprofit a tax refund for food, drinks and room rentals purchased for an education conference, the Department of State Revenue ruled, because the refreshments were meant for members of the organizations.
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August 28, 2025
Ind. Farmer Can't Get Tax Break For ATV Purchase
An Indiana farmer was correctly denied a sales tax break for an all-terrain vehicle he said was used to spray crops, the state's tax department said, finding he failed to prove the vehicle was used for an exempt purpose.
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August 28, 2025
Texas House OKs Lower Voter-Approval Property Tax Rate
Texas would lower its maximum property tax rate permitted by law without voter approval for larger taxing jurisdictions under a bill passed by the state House of Representatives.
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August 27, 2025
Ga. Justices Back Income Approach For Low-Income Housing
County tax assessors in Georgia may use a method known as the income approach to determine the fair market value of properties that qualify for federal low-income housing tax credits, the state Supreme Court ruled, reversing an appeals court finding.
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August 27, 2025
Minn. Justices Reject DuPont's Appeal Of $9M Tax Bill
Minnesota's tax department lawfully excluded receipts from currency hedging transactions in its apportionment of the income of chemical company DuPont, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, upholding a state tax court decision and a $9 million assessment against the company.
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August 27, 2025
Calif. Court Affirms Dept. Can Review Co. Sales Before Refund
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration was within its rights to review a tobacco company's sales documents for excess tax reimbursement before it issued the company an excise tax refund, a state appellate court affirmed.Â
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August 27, 2025
Baker Botts Adds 2 More Lateral Partners In NY
As it touts the addition of 17 lateral partners this year so far, Baker Botts LLP announced Tuesday that it has gained a former Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP attorney focused on executive compensation and transactional tax strategy and a former McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney focused on public company and private equity mergers and acquisitions.
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August 27, 2025
NJ Tax Court Restores Church's Property Tax Exemption
A New Jersey town incorrectly imposed a property tax assessment on a church, the state's tax court ruled in an opinion released Wednesday, rejecting the town assessor's argument that the owner failed to timely file a required form to maintain its tax exemption.
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August 26, 2025
New DC Combined Reporting Rules Coming, Official Says
Updates to Washington, D.C.'s statutes and regulations that would specify how the district's treatment of combined groups will change under a new system in January should start being rolled out over the next few months, an attorney for the district's tax agency said Tuesday.
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August 26, 2025
The Tax Angle: Tariff Troubles, Tipped Income
From a look at the impact of rising tariffs on energy tax credits and issues arising from the deduction for taxes on tips, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few developing tax stories.
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August 26, 2025
Colo. Lawmakers OK Selling Tax Credits To Raise $100M
Colorado would sell tax credits to raise up to $100 million to help bridge an expected budget gap under legislation that state lawmakers passed Tuesday, sending the bill to Gov. Jared Polis.
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August 26, 2025
Ohio Board Denies Tax Break For Church's Vacant School
A portion of a church property with a vacant school on it didn't qualify for a tax exemption, even though the property owner stated its intentions to demolish the school, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals said.
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August 26, 2025
Ohio House Bills Seek To End Or Limit Property Taxes
Three bills introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives would eliminate property taxes by 2030, allow voters to introduce ballot initiatives to lower property taxes and increase the approval threshold for passage of certain property taxes.
Expert Analysis
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Challenge To Ill. Card Fee Law Explores Compliance Hurdles
A recent federal lawsuit challenging an Illinois law that will soon forbid electronic payment networks from charging fees for processing the tax and tip portions of card transactions, fleshes out the glaring compliance challenges and exposure risks financial institutions must be ready to face next summer, says Martin Kiernan at Amundsen Davis.
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This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Letting The People Decide: SALT In Review
RSM's David Brunori offers a look at tax-related ballot questions before the voters in 16 states this fall.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Frames Of Deference: SALT In Review
From a challenge to New York state regulations that follows on the end of Chevron deference to a court ruling siding with the Nebraska Revenue Department's view of a tax deduction, RSM's David Brunori offers his thoughts on noteworthy state and local tax news.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.