This SALT Alert summarizes many of the major legislative, judicial, and administrative developments affecting Alabama business taxpayers with respect to income, transactional, and property taxes. The Spring 2015 legislative...more
The Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 (the “Act”) provides state income tax credits to certain donors who make contributions to a state-approved scholarship granting organization (SGO) operating within Alabama. The Act was...more
Beginning January 1, 2016, all organizations that have a statutory exemption from the payment of Alabama sales, use or lodgings taxes--other than certain government entities, public universities and healthcare...more
As many of you are aware, there has been a marked increase in the emphasis on worker misclassification, not only by the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), but by states. The IRS and U.S. DOL have...more
Summary -
Governor Robert Bentley called a second special session of the Alabama Legislature on Tuesday, September 9 at 5 p.m. to address the FY 2016 General Fund budget and associated revenue measures. After meeting for...more
9/22/2015
/ Ad Valorem Tax ,
Business Privilege Tax ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Combined Reporting ,
Department of Revenue ,
ETFs ,
Excise Tax ,
FICA Taxes ,
Gas Taxes ,
General Fund ,
Healthcare ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Lottery ,
Medicaid ,
Pharmacies ,
Property Tax ,
State Budgets ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Amnesty ,
Tax Increases ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
Tax Revenues ,
Tobacco ,
Tribal Government Programs
The first Special Session of 2015 ended on Tuesday, August 11, without accomplishing the primary objective of passing a General Fund budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The Governor’s “call” for the special session included...more
8/19/2015
/ Business Taxes ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Legislative Process ,
Reciprocity Rules ,
Repeal ,
Sales & Use Tax ,
Sales Tax ,
State Budgets ,
Sufficient Nexus ,
Tax Exemptions ,
Tax Reform
The following is an edited transcript of a discussion at a May 8 meeting of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s State and Local Taxes Committee in Washington. Bruce Ely, a partner at Bradley Arant Boult...more
Consistent with Governor Robert Bentley’s public statement last week that he hopes Amazon.com or another internet e-tailer will sue the state of Alabama regarding its position on nexus, the Alabama Department of Revenue...more
8/6/2015
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Amazon ,
Commerce Clause ,
Department of Revenue ,
Due Process ,
Governor Bentley ,
Nexus ,
NPRM ,
Out-of-State Companies ,
Physical Presence Test ,
Quill ,
Sales & Use Tax ,
SCOTUS
Yesterday afternoon, the Alabama Department of Revenue (ADOR) withdrew its controversial proposed digital tax regulation, Rule 810-6-5-09, likely in response to the request of the Legislative Council’s newly-appointed...more
As previously reported, the Alabama Department of Revenue proposed a regulation imposing a rental tax on digital transmissions, broadly defined as “on demand movies, television programs, streaming video, streaming audio, and...more
7/8/2015
/ App Store ,
Cable Television Providers ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Department of Revenue ,
Digital Media ,
Digital Services ,
Internet Streaming ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Netflix ,
Rental Tax ,
Tangible Property ,
Television Broadcast Stations
The Alabama Senate adjourned sine die on Thursday, June 4, and the Alabama House of Representatives met for their last day on Thursday, June 11. Although the legislature passed a record-setting, $6 billion Education Trust...more
The Alabama Senate adjourned late Thursday afternoon, June 4, leaving a number of pending bills on the table. Although the legislature passed a record-setting $6 billion Education Trust Fund budget, the issue that pervaded...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne on May 18. In a split 5-4 decision, the Court struck down as unconstitutional a feature of Maryland’s income tax...more
On March 2 in an 8-1 decision, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 (the “Act”) in Magee et al. v. Boyd et al. The massive 222-page opinion affirmed in part, but...more
The Alabama Department of Revenue has issued a proposed regulation that, if finalized in its present form, would substantially expand the scope of the state and local rental tax applied to video-on-demand and other digital...more
As part of Republican Governor Robert Bentley’s eight-bill revenue package, Representative Mike Hill (R-Columbiana) has introduced a mandatory unitary combined reporting bill (often called “MUCR”), H.B. 142, that would be...more
In the State of Alabama’s and CSX Transportation’s second trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court held in a 7-2 decision on March 4 that Alabama’s sales tax on diesel fuel purchased and used by rail carriers—where motor and...more
Chief Judge Bill Thompson of the newly-established Alabama Tax Tribunal ("the Tribunal") issued his first, and a key, ruling involving the scope of his authority when the taxpayer, Stone Bridge Farms of Cullman, Alabama, does...more
In preparation for the 2015 regular session of the Alabama Legislature, which begins Tuesday, March 3, one of Alabama’s most influential business and trade organizations, the 5,000-member Business Council of Alabama (BCA),...more
As you end your telephone conversation with the revenue examiner, you think to yourself, “Thank goodness, this one is finally over!” The audit of your biggest client started over three years ago, and has seemingly dragged on...more
Chief Judge Bill Thompson of the newly-established Alabama Tax Tribunal has issued his first ruling involving the scope of his authority as a judge when the taxpayer did not specifically raise an argument or defense in its...more
On December 17, the Council On State Taxation (COST) announced that Alabama’s grade in their “Best and Worst of State Tax Administration” scorecard on Tax Appeals and Procedural Requirements, otherwise known as the “Due...more
In September 2010, a small group of Alabama taxpayers brought a second class action lawsuit against Revenue Discovery Systems/Alatax (“RDS”) alleging that RDS and its auditors committed multiple violations of the Alabama...more
This SALT Alert summarizes the major legislative, judicial, and administrative developments affecting Alabama business taxpayers with respect to income, transactional, and property taxes, as well as several updates on...more
After several months’ wait and efforts to deal with pesky tax and geographical issues involving the police jurisdictions that surround most Alabama municipalities, the Alabama Department of Revenue last Friday posted a very...more