State & Local
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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.
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August 26, 2025
Tax Credit Dispute Sparks $1.3M Lawsuit Against Jersey City
A prominent Garden State developer filed a lawsuit against New Jersey's second-largest city, claiming the city improperly reversed its position on a longstanding tax agreement — demanding nearly $1.3 million in back payments that the developer says it does not owe.
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August 26, 2025
Calif. Senate OKs New Tax Default Property Sales Rules
California county boards of supervisors would be required to take new steps before approving the sale of a tax-defaulted property under a bill passed by the state Senate.Â
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August 26, 2025
Mass. Tax Amnesty Generated $140M, Revenue Chief Says
Massachusetts collected more than $140 million in revenue from a 60-day tax amnesty program last year, exceeding the initiative's $100 million forecast, the state Department of Revenue commissioner said Tuesday.
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August 26, 2025
Maine's Budget, Tax Chief To Retire
The commissioner of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services since 2019 will retire from state service, the state's governor announced Tuesday.
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August 25, 2025
Calif. Pitfall Prompted Mass.'s PL 86-272 Reg, Official Says
A California court's invalidation of guidance narrowing federal tax protections for certain online activities because that state didn't follow the rulemaking process weighed into Massachusetts' decision to propose a regulation to adopt a similar stance, a Bay State tax agency attorney said Monday.
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August 25, 2025
Ala. Counties Urge Against Changing Remote Seller Tax Rules
Alabama must keep a tax program that allows remote sellers to collect a flat rate and avoid calculating taxes across hundreds of local jurisdictions, a group representing counties in the state said Monday.
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August 25, 2025
Colo. Lawmakers OK Cuts To Business Tax Breaks
The Colorado Senate gave final passage Monday to a group of bills to cut business tax breaks as part of a package state Democrats say is needed to help fill a budget gap caused by federal tax and spending changes.
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August 25, 2025
Mich. Judge Backs 125% Recovery In Tax Foreclosure Deal
A Michigan federal judge has given the initial approval to a settlement between a proposed class of former property owners and two counties over allegations that the counties unlawfully kept surplus proceeds from the sales of their tax-foreclosed properties, a deal similar to one the same judge OK'd last week.
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August 25, 2025
Ind. Tax Court Overturns Kohl's Property Valuation Win
The Indiana Board of Tax Review incorrectly accepted a property appraisal offered by a Kohl's location despite serious flaws in the method, the state tax court ruled, reversing the board and remanding the matter back to it.
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August 25, 2025
Ex-TSA Attorney Among 3 New Lawyers At Kaplan Kirsch
A former Transportation Security Administration attorney is among three lawyers who recently joined Kaplan Kirsch LLP, a Denver-based law firm that specializes in representing state, local and tribal government agencies on projects such as airport expansions and new rail lines.
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August 25, 2025
Connecticut Court Backs Ouster Of Tax Atty Over Rogue Email
Connecticut's former tax legal director was properly terminated after she used her work computer to send unauthorized draft legislation from her personal email account to a lobbyist who assumed that it was the state tax department's official position, a Connecticut appeals panel has ruled.
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August 25, 2025
Pa. Bill Would Repeal Invalid Graduated Income Tax Law
Pennsylvania would formally repeal its graduated income tax that was never allowed to take effect when it passed in 1935 because of the commonwealth's constitutional uniformity clause, under a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
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August 25, 2025
NY Bill Seeks Property Tax Credits In Certain Jurisdictions
Some New York taxpayers would be eligible for a tax credit of their property tax amount if the taxpayer lives in certain taxing districts under a bill introduced in the state Senate.Â
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.