A Denver District Court judge has held that the Colorado Department of Revenue cannot forcibly combine a corporation’s subsidiary, a holding company that derived its income solely from investments in foreign entities, in Agilent Technologies, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of the State of Colorado, et al. The court ruled that the Department of Revenue was bound by its own regulation, which provided that a corporation without any property or payroll of its own cannot be included in a Colorado combined return. The court also ruled that neither an IRC section 482-type Colorado statute, nor the economic substance doctrine, gave the Department the authority to include the subsidiary in its parent’s Colorado combined return.

Morrison & Foerster LLP was lead counsel in this case.