Taxation

Jun 5, 2023

Apportionment can be first used on amended tax return

A taxpayer may elect to use the manufacturer’s income apportionment method contained in Code § 58.1-422 for the first time in an amended tax return. The Department of Taxation and the tax commissioner erred by concluding otherwise. Background “Virginia law requires that ‘multistate businesses … apportion their income to determine the amount of their income […]

Mar 28, 2023

Additional BPOL tax assessment untimely

Where a city revenue commissioner seeks to correct respondent’s self-assessment of its 2017 Business, Professional, and Occupational License (BPOL) tax, the action is untimely under a three-year statute of limitations for an administrative appeal. Although the statute of limitations has not expired for direct judicial review, the ends of justice will not be served by […]

Jan 5, 2023

County’s machine and tool tax was not uniform

Where a county increased its machinery and tool tax for one year to cover a budget shortfall resulting from prior M&T tax refunds but issued economic grants to offset the tax increase to only those businesses “negatively impacted by the adjustment to the M&T tax,” this resulted in an unconstitutional nonuniform tax. The circuit court […]

Jul 25, 2022

IFTA preempts tax on internet service sales

Appellant was incorrectly denied a refund of county taxes paid on its sale of internet access services. The circuit court determined that a grandfather clause in the Internet Tax Freedom Act allowed the county to impose Business and Professional Occupational License taxes. However, the ITFA preempts Fairfax County’s BPOL. The circuit court’s ruling is reversed […]

Jun 24, 2022

Freelance writer gets tax payment refund

A city’s tax ordinance does not apply to a freelance writer because he does not provide a service and his business is not covered by the ordinance’s catchall provision. Overview Corban Klug owns Regulus Books. Regulus is the holding company for rights, transactions and income derived from Klug’s various fiction and nonfiction literary efforts. Klug’s […]

Feb 21, 2022

Stored tobacco not ‘used’ for tax statute purposes

Where a multistate corporation’s Virginia income is determined, in part, by the average value of real and tangible property owned and used in Virginia, a tobacco company’s storage and aging of leaf tobacco in Virginia warehouses is not “use” of the tobacco under the relevant tax statutes and regulations. Parsing the statute “The central question […]

Jan 24, 2022

Bill of review for tax assessment revived

Where the Emmanuel Worship Center challenged the city of Petersburg’s property tax assessment on a “learning annex,” the circuit court erred by dismissing EWC’s bill of review after concluding the underlying matter was an action at law. Under the relevant statutes, a bill of review is an equitable proceeding. The court further erred by issuing […]

Nov 8, 2021

Taxing authority’s presumption of correctness rebutted

Where a county’s expert testified that two tax assessments were more than the property’s fair market value, the property owner overcame the presumption that a taxing authority’s assessment is presumed to be correct. Assessments and opinions In 1988, CSHV leased two office buildings in Arlington County to the Government Services Administration. The GSA used the […]

Aug 16, 2021

Internet provider liable for city’s business tax assessment

An internet service provider must pay a city’s business tax assessments because the city began collecting the tax before the effective date of a federal law that bars taxation of internet service access revenues. Background This case involves the interplay between the city of Norfolk’s Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL) tax and the federal […]

Jun 10, 2021

Transient occupancy tax applies to home rentals

The circuit court correctly upheld the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ amendment of the county’s zoning ordinance, and the imposition of a two percent lodging tax on short-term rentals of residential homes. Zoning amendments Appellants (hosts) are a group of homeowners who use online platforms to make short-term rentals of their homes. The Fairfax County […]

May 25, 2021

City can tax revenue from internet service provider

The city of Hampton’s Business, Professional, and Occupational License tax is best understood as a tax on a business’s gross receipts rather than a fee for the privilege of conducting business in the city. As such, the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act bars taxing defendant’s gross receipts derived from its provision of internet services unless […]

Sep 28, 2020

Machinery assessment was not uniform

A county’s machinery and tool tax assessment was not valid where the county enacted a tax increase coupled with a tax relief program that operated as a partial tax emption for some taxpayers. Background International Paper owns a plant in Isle of Wight County. It closed the plant in 2010 and reopened in 2012, the […]