Despite unexpectedly high personal income tax receipts exceeding forecasts by $9 billion for the first seven months of California’s 2022 fiscal year, Assembly Bill 2289 proposes raising even more revenue for the State, through a brand-new annual wealth tax. This brand-new levy would apply as follows: 1.5 percent on certain assets exceeding $1 billion ($500 […]

On February 8th, Pennsylvania’s intangible expense add-back statute received renewed focus in Governor Wolf’s budget proposal.  The add-back statute went into effect in 2015 and denies deductions for intangible expenses or costs with an affiliated entity, including interest expense if it was related to an intangible expense or cost.  (See 72 P.S. 7401(3)1.(t))  The add-back […]

California has been a longtime supporter of clean-energy investments.  Next year’s proposed budget promises to offer even more statutory credits and incentives.  The plan includes additions to the current R&D credit for companies headquartered in California that invest in activities and technologies mitigating climate change. In addition, California plans to invest an additional $6.1 billion […]

The Louisiana Department of Revenue’s (Department) voluntary initiative (RIB No. 21-029) for corporate income taxpayers will expire before you know it.  The last few years have seen lengthy and complex Department field audits resulting in significant transfer pricing adjustments which make this program attractive to eligible taxpayers with numerous domestic intercompany transactions. There are clear benefits […]

TaxAnalysts – State Tax Notes (September 16, 2021): A lawsuit filed in California seeks to overturn the state’s mandatory single-sales-factor apportionment requirement, which it says was unlawfully passed. In One Technologies LLC v. Franchise Tax Board, a Texas company argues that it’s owed a refund for the tax it paid to California for the 2017 […]

San Francisco Daily Journal (September 14, 2021):  In what could be one of the first of many cases, the operators of a Sacramento senior living community have sued a county tax agency over its refusal to lower its assessment because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Attorney Marty H. Dakessian of Los Angeles stated in a complaint […]

March 15, 2021 — California legislators plan to re-introduce a first-of-its-kind wealth tax proposal similar to the one that failed in 2020. Instead of a 4% tax on wealth over $40 million, this year’s proposal would impose a 1% tax on wealth above $50 million and a 1.5% tax on wealth above $1 billion. The new […]

CalTaxletter (January 29, 2021): The Office of Tax Appeals held a hearing January 27 in the Appeal of Starbuzz International Inc., involving a dispute over the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration’s imposition of the tobacco products excise tax to shisha (hookah tobacco) sold by the taxpayer.   Click here to view entire article. (Subscription […]

CalTaxletter (December 4, 2020): Two taxpayers were entitled to a refund of $423,695 for the 2011 tax year, the Office of Tax Appeals concluded in an October 21 ruling in the Appeal of L. Conacher and J. Dea. In its 2-1 ruling, the OTA additionally denied the Franchise Tax Board’s proposal of $20,120 of additional […]

CalTaxletter (January 17, 2020): The California Supreme Court this week denied review of a Court of Appeal ruling that invalidated a tax in Rialto as an invalid real property tax. The high court’s January 15 action leaves in place the taxpayer’s win in Tesoro Logistics Operations, LLC et al. v. City of Rialto. In its […]

Law360 (May 6, 2019): ­­ A former NFL player has sued California’s Franchise Tax Board in a dispute over whether he was a resident of the state after being drafted and owes more than $900,000, according to the player’s attorney. On Friday Joseph Keyshawn Johnson, a former wide receiver, sued the Franchise Tax Board in […]

CalTaxletter (April 12, 2019):  A taxpayer’s successful challenge of Los Angeles’ application of a business gross receipts tax “resulted in the enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest – namely compelling the City to adhere to the Municipal Code and to abandon its practice of misclassifying businesses,” One of them was found at […]

TaxAnalysts – State Tax Notes (March 18, 2019):  At the March 6 joint hearing of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, and Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration and General Government, speakers weighed in on whether the BOE — which was stripped of all but its constitutional duties […]

CalTaxletter (March 1, 2019):  Legislation to make changes to the California Department and Fee Administration’s implementation of South Dakota v. Wayfair, the U.S. Supreme Court decision relating to sales and use tax on transactions involving out-of-state sellers, was approved February 25 by the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. The bill, AB 147 (Burke), received unanimous, […]

CalTaxletter (February 22, 2019):  The Office of Tax Appeals on February 21 unanimously denied the Franchise Tax Board’s petition to rehear the Appeal of Keyshawn Johnson and Shikiri Johnson, finding no good cause to rehear an appeal decided in Johnson’s favor in 2017 – in the last appeal of an FTB assessment heard by the […]

Law360 (August 5, 2018) — Hertz Corp. and Enterprise RentACar Co. filed a complaint June 8 in the state Superior Court, challenging the $3.50 per rental car transaction fee imposed by the Port of San Diego in April to raise funds for a parking lot. Because the rental car lots are on airport property, the […]

The Hill, (June 28, 2018):  The nomination of Chuck Rettig, a Beverly Hills, Calif., tax lawyer, comes at a critical moment for the IRS, which is tasked with implementing the new Republican tax law and needs to quickly modernize its technology. Tax lawyers who know Rettig say his background will be valuable because he understands […]

Mardiros “Marty” Dakessian of Dakessian Law Ltd. in Los Angeles told Law360 he has known Rettig since around 2000 and that Rettig has the ability to “bring people together” in addition to having demonstrated integrity while representing taxpayers and playing a leadership role in multiple bar associations. Whatever Rettig’s priorities will be, whether they end up […]

Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Nicolas Maduros as director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration as part of a major transition overhauling the State Board of Equalization’s (BOE) long-standing tax authority. Marty Dakessian said he’s hopeful that the Brown administration will consider input from stakeholders as it takes over the BOE’s adjudicative […]

California Legislature seeks to pass Assembly Bill 102 (A.B. 102) as part of the state’s budget. A.B. 102 is a significant overhaul of the system for administering California taxes and a significant reduction in responsibilities of the Board of Equalization (BOE). If enacted, A.B. 102 would establish two new agencies – the California Department of […]

According to Mardiros “Marty” Dakessian of Dakessian Law Ltd., the justices dropped the ball on offering clarity on a longstanding issue that has left businesses vulnerable to the “dangerous” possibility of states overturning court decisions through legislative action. “Michigan has undermined the rule of law in their own state,” Dakessian said. “In my opinion, by […]

A San Diego trial court has ruled in favor of the FTB in what could be one of the biggest cases in the history of California tax litigation (ruling attached). The case of Harley-Davidson v. Franchise Tax Board concerns whether a California law that allows only in-state taxpayers to elect unitary or separate company filing […]

In a recent Bloomberg BNA report, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed four civil and criminal complaints against landlords who were renting out apartment buildings through AirBNB. The city attorney alleged that the landlords were engaged in illegal activity that was exacerbating the City’s shortage of affordable housing. These civil actions follow a recent […]

Since the Gillette Co. v. Franchise Tax Board ruling plans to be appealed in the United States Supreme Court, the California FTB is recommending taxpayers and their representatives to wait until the conclusion of litigation before taking action on cases regarding the Multistate Tax Compact election issue. On December 31, 2015, the California Supreme Court […]

Reversing the California Court of Appeal in a case in which the issue was whether, for years between 1993 and 2005, multistate businesses (Taxpayers) could elect the standard, i.e., equal-weighted, 3-factor apportionment formula set forth in the Multistate Tax Compact (Compact) for purposes of apportioning their business income to California or were required to use […]

As of late December 2015, the Supreme Court upheld a state law that readjusted multistate businesses’ income taxes; however, it only helped the companies based in California and harmed out-of-state businesses. This ruling impacted six major firms, including Proctor & Gamble, Sigma-Aldrich, Jones Apparel Group, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark and RB Holdings. They sought a $34 million […]

In 2013, Attorney Dakessian represented a real estate company in Nevada that was being subjected to taxation in California. The real estate firm was told to pay $2.27 million in back taxes by the Franchise Tax Board in 2000, after being audited. The owner of the firm was a resident of California and he paid […]

Since 1993, California had provided its own version of a federal income tax law that allowed for the sale of qualified small business stock to be excluded as a tax deduction. This was only for company’s who had at least 80% of their payroll and assets within California. The Franchise Tax Board eliminated this tax […]