We greatly appreciate our readers over the past year and are pleased to share that we were recently recognized as the #1 Firm for tax thought leadership in the 2021 JD Supra Readers’ Choice Awards, which acknowledge top authors and firms for their thought leadership in key topics during all of last year.
Through our various blogs, thought leadership pieces and tax-focused events, we are dedicated to maintaining our position as a leading firm for tax work and keeping clients abreast of significant and relevant topics in the industry.
We greatly appreciate our readers over the past year and are pleased to share that we were recently recognized by Law360 as the Tax Group of the Year.
In 2018, McDermott’s tax practice made headlines with its various high-profile state and local, US federal and international matters. Through our blogs, thought leadership pieces and tax-focused events, we are dedicated to maintaining our position as a leading firm for tax work and keeping clients abreast of significant and relevant topics in the industry.
In our holiday tradition, as a thank you to all of our Inside SALT readers and subscribers, we are pleased to present our annual Inside SALT Crossword Puzzle Contest. We hope you’ll enjoy this little diversion that tests your knowledge of key state and local tax developments this year. To enter, please download and print the puzzle by clicking on the image below. After you complete the puzzle, please send it as a PDF file to skranz@mwe.com no later than January 4, 2019, at 11:59 pm EST. The first eligible entrant to submit a complete and correct puzzle wins a $200 Amazon gift card. The contest is open to registered Inside SALT email subscribers from the United States and District of Columbia who are age of majority or older. (To become a subscriber, please enter your email address in the box on the right side of your screen.)
Contest ends at 11:59 pm EST on January 4, 2019. Participation is subject to the Official Rules. For complete details, view the Official Rules. This contest is void outside the US and DC and where prohibited, restricted or taxed. Please also share your feedback about what topics you would like to hear more about in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you and to bringing you timely SALT updates and analysis in the coming year!
Today, US Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) filed the Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2018 (S.3581) for reintroduction in the United States Senate. A companion version is expected to be reintroduced tomorrow in the House of Representatives by Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Steve Cohen (D-TN). This bill, if enacted, would establish a national framework for how states apply their sales and use tax systems to sales and uses of digital goods and digital services. The bill would resolve current uncertainty regarding which state has the right to tax certain sales and whether a state has the right to tax the sale of a digital good or digital service. The bill also would establish uniform, destination-based, sourcing rules for sales of such products and services.
Sales of digital goods and services are highly mobile transactions. A customer could have a billing address in one state and download a digital good from the seller’s server in another state while the customer is traveling in a third state. Whether such a transaction has sufficient attributes in any one of the three states to give rise to the right to tax the transaction by any one of them is open to question. Assuming one of the states has the right to tax the sale, there is a question as to which state that might be. The bill would clearly specify that one of the states has the right to tax the sale and clearly delineate which state has such taxing rights. (more…)
October 5, 2018: Peter Faber spoke at the ABA Tax Section in Atlanta, GA about the efforts by the states to circumvent the federal limitations on deducting state taxes.
October 9, 2018: Peter Faber spoke at the NYC Department of Finance Seminar in New York, NY about the implications of federal tax reform for the city.
October 17, 2018: Peter Faber is speaking at the Hartman State and Local Tax Conference in Nashville, TN about the state taxation of mergers and acquisitions.
October 19, 2018: Steve Kranz is speaking at the Paul J. Hartman State and Local Tax Forum in Nashville, TN regarding Top Ten Sales & Use Tax Developments (that are not Wayfair).
October 27, 2018: Troy Van Dongen will be speaking about the various ways that states have approached the issue around the legalization of cannabis at the National Association of State Bar Tax Sections Conference, in San Francisco, CA.
October 30, 2018: Peter Faber is presenting at the Philadelphia Tax Conference in Philadelphia, PA regarding current developments in state and local taxes.
McDermott hosted the first Tax in the City® meeting of 2018 in its Chicago office on March 15, 2018. Tax in the City® is a discussion and networking group for women in tax aimed at fostering collaboration and mentorship, and facilitating in-person connections and roundtable events around the country.
The Chicago program was one of the best attended Tax in the City® events to date, featuring a CLE/CPE presentation about the State Tax Impacts of Tax Reform by Cate Battin, Alysse McLoughlin and Diann Smith, followed by a discussion of Employee Benefits Impacts of Tax Reform by Diane Morgenthaler. The roundtable portion of the event covered federal tax reform issues, such as effects on partnerships, the GILTI tax, the BEAT tax, followed by an update on South Dakota v. Wayfair, a United States Supreme Court case reexamining the physical presence requirements for state sales tax collection nexus.
Key State & Local Tax Takeaways from Tax in the City® Chicago
Without legislation at the state level, any tax payment impact from the federal repatriation transition provisions will all be concentrated in one year for state tax purposes, as opposed to the federal level where the impact will be spread over eight years.
A company may have a GILTI issue at the state level, even if not at the federal level, because the states don’t take foreign tax credits into account.
Conforming to GILTI may create unconstitutional discrimination against foreign commerce.
States and taxpayers need to consider upon which federal return lines the new provisions will appear and how special statements, such as the repatriation statement, will map to state calculations the return and what schedules are used.
The next Tax in the City® meeting will take place in Seattle, WA on May 22. Please reach out to Mia Dubinets at mdubinets@mwe.com if you’d like to be added to the Seattle Tax in the City® mailing list, and receive invitations for the May event.
We invite all tax professionals who identify as female to join Tax in the City® official LinkedIn group to continue the conversation and share tax developments in between events and meetings! Click here to join.
January 24, 2018: Stephen Kranz is presenting “Handling State Tax Controversies to Win!!” at the 27th Annual Ohio Tax Conference in Columbus, Ohio, solving tax problems holistically to achieve success, understanding the offensive and defensive tools available and the avenues for relief when interacting with the government, planning and building the team to effectively work all avenues the government offers, tools available including Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), policy solutions and litigation, with Jeff McGhehey, Senior Manager, Indirect Tax, The Home Depot.
McDermott hosted its last Tax in the City® women’s tax roundtable of the year in its Chicago office on December 14, 2017.
The Chicago Year-In-Review event featured a CLE/CPE presentation, “Key Provisions of International Tax Reform,” by Britt Haxton, Kristen Hazel and Sandra McGill, followed by a roundtable discussion on interest expense limitations, changes to net operating loss provisions, pass through tax rates and effects of tax reform on benefits.
Additionally, Catherine Battin, Mary Kay Martire and Jane May discussed the SALT perspective on the international tax reform provisions. A summary of key Illinois income tax changes is below, and a thorough explanation of the new SALT implications in the tax reform bills can be found here.
In our holiday tradition, as a thank you to all of our Inside SALT readers and subscribers, we are pleased to present our annual Inside SALT Crossword Puzzle Contest. We hope you’ll enjoy this little diversion that tests your knowledge of key state and local tax developments this year. To enter, please download and print the puzzle by clicking on the image below. After you complete the puzzle, please send it as a PDF file to skranz@mwe.com no later than January 5, 2018, at 11:59 pm EST. The first eligible entrant to submit a complete and correct puzzle wins a $200 Amazon gift card. The contest is open to registered Inside SALT email subscribers from the United States and District of Columbia who are age of majority or older. (To become a subscriber, please enter your email address in the box on the right side of your screen.) Contest ends at 11:59 pm EST on January 5, 2018. Participation is subject to the Official Rules. For complete details, click here to view the Official Rules. This contest is void outside the US and DC and where prohibited, restricted or taxed. Please also share your feedback about what topics you would like to hear more about in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you and to bringing you timely SALT updates and analysis in the coming year! Click puzzle to enlarge and download.
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