Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Winding Back "Wayfair": Retaining The Physical Presence Rule For State Income Taxation, Nathan Townsend

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., a case abrogating the physical presence rule from Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. The physical presence rule barred a state from forcing a retailer to collect sales taxes on the state's behalf if the retailer lacked a physical presence within the state. The decision came after a decades-long effort by the states to reach sales-tax revenue effectively pushed beyond their reach by the physical presence rule. While enabling states to reach a new revenue source, the Court failed to take full account of the reliance interests dependent on …

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: States Lead Misguided Offensive To Enforce Sales Tax Against Online Retailers, Ricky Hutchens

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is a near universal experience. An individual wants to purchase an item. He shops around to find the best price. After a diligent search, he realizes that if he makes the purchase online, he can avoid being charged sales tax on the item. Depending on the price of the item and the tax rate, the savings can be substantial- sometimes enough to justify paying for shipping. But many consumers fail to consider another consequence: choosing an online retailer effectively denies tax revenue to a buyer's home state. In the United States, state governments have three basic options for generating …

Pro And Con (Law): Considering The Irrevocable Nongrantor Trust Technique, Alyssa A. Dirusso

Vanderbilt Law Review

Commentary on Jeffrey Schoenblum, Strange Bedfellows: The Federal Constitution, Out-of-State Nongrantor Accumulation Trusts, and the Complete Avoidance of State Income Taxation'

Strange Bedfellows: The Federal Constitution, Out-Of-State Nongrantor Accumulation Trusts, And The Complete Avoidance Of State Income Taxation, Jeffrey Schoenblum

Vanderbilt Law Review

With the maximum rate of federal income tax at 39.6 percent, the Medicare surtax on investment income of 3.8 percent, and some state income tax rates exceeding 9 percent, taxpayers in the highest brackets have been seeking to develop strategies to lessen the tax burden. One strategy that has been receiving increased attention is the use of a highly specialized trust known as the NING, a Nevada incomplete gift nongrantor trust, which eliminates state income taxation of investment income altogether without generating additional federal income or transfer taxes. A major obstacle standing in the way of accomplishing this objective, however, …

State And Local Taxation Of Financial Institutions:An Opportunity For Reform, C. James Judson, Susan G. Duffy

Vanderbilt Law Review

Forces at work in both public and private sectors may soon change the way state and local political subdivisions tax financial institutions. The market for financial services is changing dramatically. Governments have expanded substantially the scope of activities in which financial depositories may engage. The competitive environment for financial activities also is changing as general business corporations enter the financial services field, an area previously considered the exclusive domain of financial institutions. Financial institutions have increasing opportunities for interstate activity, which offers both risks and challenges. These changes have occurred during a period in which the extensive framework of state …

Significant Sales And Use Tax Developments During The Past Half Century, Jerome R. Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Sales and use taxes have been the great growth taxes of state and local governments during the past half century. The general sales tax, along with selected levies on gasoline, tobacco, and liquor, has had phenomenal growth during the past fifty years. In 1932 only Mississippi imposed a general sales tax. It produced seven million dollars, less than one percent of Mississippi's total tax revenues. Taxes once introduced, however, tend to grow at least until widespread dissatisfaction leads to a taxpayers' revolt,such as California's Proposition 13' or the election of President Ronald Reagan and the ascendancy of political conservatism and …

Selected Issues In State Business Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article surveys selected issues in state business taxation.The topics were chosen with the hope that they would be of general interest to the conference for which this Article originally was prepared. The Article therefore eschews the detailed case analysis that typifies much of the law review writing about state and local taxation-including my own-and focuses instead on broader policy and economic questions that those concerned with state business taxation should find no less important.

Part II of this Article considers business taxes and state tax incentives. Part III discusses federal and state tax conformity. Part IV addresses a number …

An Analytical Approach To State Tax Discrimination Under The Commerce Clause, Philip M. Tatarowicz, Rebecca F. Mims-Velarde

Vanderbilt Law Review

The commerce clause as an instrument of federalism facilitates a system of government that places a national government over fifty sovereign states. Federalism requires a balancing of the interest in a unified national approach to government with the competing interest in state sovereignty. As Justice Brennan explained:

"Our Constitution is an instrument of federalism. The Constitution furnishes the structure for the operation of the States with respect to the National Government and with respect to each other.. ..Because there are 49 States and much of the Nation's commercial activity is carried on by enterprises having contacts with more States than …

Constitutional Limitations On State Taxation Of Corporate Income From Multinational Corporations, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores the Supreme Court's treatment, leading up to and including the Container decision, of state taxation of corporate income from multinational operations. Part II highlights the Court's development, prior to 1982, of the basic principles of federal limitations on the states' taxing powers that guided its decision in Container. Part III takes a more detailed look at two 1982 Supreme Court cases, ASARCO, Inc. v. Idaho State Tax Commission and F.W. Woolworth Co. v. Taxation and Revenue Department, in which the states suffered a setback in their efforts to extend the reach of their taxing powers over income …

State Taxation Of Energy Resources: Are Consuming States Getting Burned?, Nancy E. Shurtz

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the severe energy shortage it caused in the United States prompted federal authorities to formulate a national energy policy that would encourage exploitation of domestic energy resources. As the federal government has implemented this energy policy, states rich in natural resources have begun to tax the energy mining and production operations within their borders.

In this Article Professor Shurtz discusses the constitutional limits of this taxation and examines how the revenues from these taxes alter the balance of wealth between energy-producing and energy-consuming states. Professor Shurtz concludes that revisions in revenue sharing formulae, …

Federal Limitations On State And Local Taxation, William R. Anderson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federal Limitations on State and Local Taxation presents a central question about how usefully and how legitimately courts have dealt with the issues of state taxing powers. The United States Supreme Court has assumed a role as the principal architect of this component of federalism. State legislatures and tax officials have, of course, played roles, but they have always operated under the shadow of judicial doctrine. While Congress has not been wholly inactive, its role has been derivative, interstitial, and hesitant. Perhaps Congress' fact-finding role has been larger than its legislative role.'

Paul J. Hartman And The Literature Of State And Local Taxation-An Appreciation, William R. Andersen

Vanderbilt Law Review

The editors of this symposium have asked me for a brief account of the contributions of Professor Hartman's published writings in the field of state and local taxation. In fairness, those contributions cannot be accounted in brief; what follows is more of a bibliography, and an appreciation...

As a final example of Hartman's concern for institutional relationships in tax policy, mention should be made of the 1959 piece on municipal income taxation.' Here, Hartman has changed lenses on his microscope and examines not the relationship between the nation and the states but that between the states and the cities. His …

State Taxation Under The Commerce Clause: An Historical Perspective, Jerome R. Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although Congress has plenary power under the commerce clause to regulate state taxation of interstate commerce, that power remained virtually unexercised until 1959. As a consequence of the silence of Congress, the task of reconciling the competing interests of states, multistate businesses, and local businesses, and accommodating those interests to the needs of a national economy fell by default to the Supreme Court. The instrumentality available to the Court for dealing with the complex political, fiscal, and economic controversies inherent in state taxation of multistate business was the commerce clause (augmented by due process restrictions and,to a lesser extent, the …

"Solicitation" And "Delivery" Under Public Law 86-272: An Uncharted Course, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1959, in response to pressure from multistate business and over the protest of state tax authorities and others, Congress passed Public Law 86-272 limiting the power of state and local governments to tax net income derived from interstate commerce.' The provisions of Public Law 86-272, briefly stated, prohibit state or local governments from imposing net income taxes on sellers of tangible personal property whose business activities in the state are limited to one or more of the following:. solicitation of orders for sales of tangible personal property by the seller or his own representative when the orders are sent …

Interstate Corporate Income Taxation-Recent Revolutions And A Modern Response, Eugene F. Corrigan

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recent years significant technical advances have enabled large corporations to sell into states from great distances and with a minimum of contact in those states. Nevertheless, the states and their political subdivisions are confronted with the claims of corporations that jurisdictional barriers to corporate income taxes should be raised, that improved enforcement techniques should be prohibited, and that certain classes of income should be immunized completely from state taxation. These revolutionary technical advances have created both major tax administration problems and tax administration opportunities for the states. Some of the latter, however, remain unexploited. This article examines the ramifications …

Out-Of-State Collection Of State And Local Taxes, Robert A. Leflar

Vanderbilt Law Review

Validly due and payable state and local taxes often go unpaid because the absent tax debtor chooses not to pay voluntarily and has no assets from which the tax debt can be collected in the taxing state. He often has assets elsewhere, but they may be difficult for the tax creditor to discover and to reach.

Only a few years ago out-of-state assets could not be reached at all, nor could the tax debtor himself be reached except within the taxing state, in its own courts, and by its own legal processes. Formerly, no state would use its law or …

Constitutional Limitations On Income Taxes In Tennessee, Walter P. Armstrong, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Until either article 2, section 28 or the judicial construction of that section is modified, Tennessee will be unable to levy a general personal income tax. The revenue needs of the state will rise dramatically during the next twenty years, placing increasing strain on the antiquated and regressive privilege-property tax structure no win effect.' As noted earlier, a constitutional amendment specifically authorizing a personal income tax does not appear to be a likely prospect for the foreseeable future. The only feasible solution seems to be the passage of a nongraduated income tax, such as that proposed by the Tax Modernization …

State Taxation Of Interstate Business-Looking Toward Federal-State Cooperation, Joseph W. Mathews Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

This note will review the historical setting of state taxation of interstate commerce and examine the problems created by the diversity of state tax laws. It will further discuss the two different approaches toward solving these problems, investigate the constitutional issues involved in the proposed solutions, analyze their inadequacy, and recommend a federal-state cooperative approach.

An Evaluation Of Municipal Income Taxation, Joe G. Davis, Jr., Arthur J. Ranson, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

In order to delineate the perspective of this Note, two observations must be made. First, the term "municipal income tax" encompasses many variations from city to city in the legal nomenclature used to identify the tax. For example, "wage taxes," "payroll taxes,""earnings taxes," and "occupational license taxes" are widely used terms which simply disguise the presence of a municipal income tax. Secondly, in relation to the traditional municipal property and sales taxes, the municipal income tax is normally supplemental rather than substitutional. An increased utilization of the municipal income tax, however, should partially relieve the burden now imposed on these …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Civil Rights--Federal Criminal Code Protects Rights Secured by Fourteenth Amendment

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Civil Rights--Removal--Strict Interpretation of Federal Removal Statute Affirmed

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Labor Law--Judicial Review of Arbitrator's Authority To Imply Contractual Condition

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Labor Relations--Federal Preemption of Defamation Suits Arising in Course of Organizational Campaign

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State and Local Taxation--Economic Exploitation Sufficient Connection To Require Non-Resident Seller To Collect Use Tax

State And Local Taxation -- 1964 Tennessee Survey, Paul I. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Five cases involving a construction of sections 67-26021 and 67-26092 of the income tax statute (Hall Income Tax) were consolidated for one opinion in the Gallagher case. Two of the cases involved the redemption of shares by the issuing corporations; the other three involved the liquidation of corporations, with a surrender of shares and distributions of assets. The Commissioner, in all of these situations, imposed an income tax on the amount constituting the difference between the original investments in the shares and the sum received in liquidation or redemption. The Commissioner argues that although these amounts may not have been …

State And Local Taxation -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Not many cases involving state taxes have been decided by the Tennessee courts during the period covered by this survey. Action taken in the halls of Congress, however, has the potential of a major revamping of the taxing power of all state and local governments.

Financing Industrial Development In The South, Margie F. Pitts

Vanderbilt Law Review

Proponents of public industrial building financing justify their position by pointing to the need to supplement private investment and to raise the level of per capita income in areas which have chronically suffered from this condition. The view one adopts of such financing is often couched on the high theme of free enterprise versus governmental participation. Yet the problem may also be viewed from the perspective of the South and its immediate needs.In the long run, it might well be that this program will have served to furnish a starting point for the process of development which would lead to …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY MAY DENY APPRISAL AND CONFRONTATION IN PURELY INVESTIGATIVE PROCEEDING

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--STATE MAY DISCHARGE EMPLOYEE FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM STATUTORY DUTY TO ANSWER

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DAMAGES--REFUSAL TO INSTRUCT JURY TO CALCULATE LOSS OF EARNINGS ON THE BASIS OF NET INCOME AFTER TAXES

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EVIDENCE--ADVERSE SPOUSAL TESTIMONY--WIFE COMPELLED TO TESTIFY IN MANN ACT PROSECUTION

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FEDERAL PROCEDURE--CHANGE OF VENUE--TRANSFER OF CIVIL ACTION MUST BE TO DISTRICT HAVING STATUTORY VENUE

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FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT--SUIT ALLOWED FOR NEGLIGENCE EVEN THOUGH ACCOMPANIED BY MISREPRESENTATION

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INSURANCE--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION--REGULATION BY STATE WHERE UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE ORIGINATES DOES NOT OUST FTC …

State And Local Taxation -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

A congressional statute that became law on September 14, 1959,severely curtails the power of all state and local governments to impose net income taxes. This statute was the aftermath of the Northwestern-Stockham decision, and a series of cases soon to follow, by the United States Supreme Court, which held that neither the due process nor the commerce clause bars the way to a nondiscriminatory, properly apportioned state tax levied directly on net income derived exclusively from interstate commerce. These decisions by the Supreme Court caused such a furor in the business world that demands were soon made on Congress for …

State Taxation Of Corporate Income From A Multistate Business, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

So long as we have a federal system of government, a continuing problem, and certainly one of the most pressing, is that of an effective coordination of taxes. That problem has achieved paramount impor- tance in late years. Because of new and expanding conceptions as to what governments should do for people, our state governments are continually confronted with ever-increasing demands that they provide additional governmental functions and supply more governmental services. The resulting increase in governmental activities and extension of benefits mean urgent needs for additional revenue. As prices have spiraled under the increasing pressure of meeting our domestic …

State Taxation Of Corporate Income From A Multistate Business, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

There was a time when state and local taxes were perhaps only a minor factor in determining where a new business would locate and were probably not seriously considered in connection with most locational decisions. In recent years, however, because of the need for additional revenue on the part of state and local governments and the resulting increases in varieties and amounts of taxes, business must give more attention to the question of state and local taxes in deciding where to locate and operate. In this discussion of state taxation of corporate income from multi-state operations, we will include taxes …

State And Local Taxation, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

That the field of state and local taxation is bedoming much more important, as well as increasingly active, is shown by a number of recent significant major developments that are of interest and concern to taxpayers and their counsel everywhere. Ten state tax cases are already on the United States Supreme Court docket for consideration during the Term commencing October 5, 1959.' During the past term at least a half dozen important state tax cases were decided by the Supreme Court, including the epochal Northwestern-Stockham decision, which threw much of the legal profession, as well as many taxpayers, into a …

State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce, Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota,' the Supreme Court recently granted states the broad power to tax earnings of out-of-state corporations from business done within each state. Justice Clark, speaking for the majority, laid down the doctrine that "the entire net income of a corporation, generated by interstate as well as intrastate activities, may be fairly apportioned among the States for tax purposes by formulas utilizing in-state aspects of inter-state affairs." The purpose of this note is to analyze the doctrine, its background and possible economic consequences.

State And Local Taxation -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Governmental Immunity--Application to Taxpayer Who is Performing a Governmental Function. Another chapter was written in the Tennessee saga of governmental immunity and local taxation by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Roane-Anderson Co. v. Evans. That case involved Tennessee taxes levied on the exercise by a taxpayer of certain privileges. These privilege taxes were measured by the gross income which the taxpayer received as a result of its activities pursuant to a contract it had with the federal government in connection with atomic bomb production at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.