SALT Blog - SALT Blawg

On July 11, 2024, Governor Josh Shapiro signed into law a $47.6 billion budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The new budget includes significant tax reform in an attempt to address some of the financial issues facing Pennsylvania residents and businesses.  

First, the budget includes some important, business-friendly changes.  The Net Operating Loss (“NOL”) deduction limitation will increase by 10% over four years. For tax year 2024, the NOL carryforward deduction is limited to 40% of a corporation’s taxable income. However, beginning January 1, 2026, the NOL deduction ...

By Pete Lowy & Nga Tran-Medina

The officiant at your wedding probably didn’t conclude with: “I now pronounce you eligible to pay more in federal income taxes now that you’re husband and wife” (unless perhaps a Tax Court judge presided over your nuptials).  But maybe they should have.  It’s well known that married couples pay a “marriage penalty” – a general term for the various Code provisions and tax computations that make the total tax liability of spouses more than the sum of their individual tax liabilities if they had been allowed to file as being single.  

These ...

In every taxing jurisdiction in the United States, tax authorities may assert penalties if a taxpayer commits fraud.  This Blawg entry focuses on the Texas Comptroller’s view of its authority to impose fraud penalties, and considerations for taxpayers when seeking to fight fraud penalties that the Comptroller asserts.

Texas Tax Code § 111.061 authorizes the Texas Comptroller to impose a penalty in the amount of 50% of any underlying tax liability if the failure to pay the underlying tax or report such tax when due “was a result of fraud or an intent to evade the tax.”  This legal ...

On Friday, June 30, New Jersey lawmakers approved the state’s budget and enacted new legislation that would overhaul several provisions of the corporate tax system. The $54.3 billion budget was approved closely along party lines with contention, while the new provisions of the corporate tax system were approved unanimously without debate.

2024 Budget

Significant tax changes were made in the 2024 budget to help increase affordability for working and middle class families. One of the major programs that will receive funding through the new budget is the property tax relief ...

Real estate assessment appeal deadlines are quickly approaching in Pennsylvania for 2024 assessed values.  Taxpayers should review their assessed values and determine whether an appeal is appropriate.  The following is a list of upcoming appeal deadlines for 2024 assessments for each county:

• August 1^st: Adams, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Chester, Dauphin, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Indiana,  Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton and York
• August 15^th: Berks
• August 31^st: Wyoming
• September 1^st: Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Bradford ...

On February 28, 2023, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its evenly divided opinions in GM Berkshire Hills LLC v. Berks County Board of Assessment Appeals, 16 MAP 2022 (“Berkshire”).  In Berkshire, the Wilson School District (“WSD” or “school district”) adopted a policy of appealing recently sold properties that were potentially underassessed by at least $150,000. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted cert, agreeing to review two issues:

• whether the school district’s selective real estate tax assessment appeals violate the uniformity clause when the ...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Synthes v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 11 MAP 2021, a closely watched case dealing with differing interpretations of Pennsylvania’s costs of performance (“COP”) statute, which ultimately had the Department of Revenue (“DOR”) and the Office of Attorney General (“OAG”) on opposite sides. 

Prior to 2014, the statute required services to be sourced to the location of the “income-producing activity.”  Where the income-producing activity occurred both within and without Pennsylvania ...

To ring in the New Year, the Texas Comptroller announced needed guidance to remote sellers and marketplace facilitators regarding sales and use tax obligations for businesses that do not have a physical presence in Texas but sell or facilitate sales to Texas customers. 

In 2018, the US Supreme Court decided the case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, in which the Court altered the decades-long standard that prevented states from imposing sales tax obligations on businesses unless they had a physical presence in the state.  In Wayfair, the Court replaced the physical nexus standard with an ...

In an opinion released September 9, 2022, the Online Merchants Guild (“Guild”) secured a victory against the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (“Department”) in its attempt to collect information and back taxes on an estimated 11,000 out-of-state sellers who stored inventory in Amazon’s warehouses in Pennsylvania. See Online Merchants Guild v. Hassell, Pa. Commw. Ct. No. 179 MD 2021, 9/9/2022.

During 2012, Amazon and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (“Department”) entered into an agreement whereby Amazon agreed to voluntarily collect and remit ...

On August 3, 2022, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court upheld a panel decision finding that a senior living facility failed to qualify as a “purely public charity” and therefore was not entitled to exemption from sales tax. See Friends Boarding Home of W. Quarterly Meeting v. Commonwealth, No. 332 F.R. 2018 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Aug. 3, 2022) (op. not reported).  In order to satisfy the requirements for a “purely public charity,” an institution must satisfy the five-part HUP test, which requires that an institution:

• Advance a charitable purpose;
• Donate or renders gratuitously a ...