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TWIST - This Week in State Tax

09.18.2023 | Duration: 3:53

Summary of state tax developments in California, New Jersey, and New York.

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Weekly TWIST recap

Welcome to TWIST for the week of September 18, 2023, featuring Sarah McGahan from the KPMG Washington National Tax state and local tax practice.

Today we are covering recent corporate income tax rate developments, sales and use tax developments from Florida and Tennessee, and a local Portland area tax change in policy around P.L. 86-272. 

In Kansas, the Secretary of the Department of Revenue filed a notice in the Kansas Register announcing that the normal corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 4 percent to 3.5 percent effective January 1, 2024. The surtax rate remains the same. The rate reduction stems from the Attracting Powerful Economic Expansion or APEX legislation enacted in Kansas in 2022. Under this law, the corporate income tax rate will be reduced by 0.5 percent for all business upon the commencement of a qualifying APEX Project in the state.  In Arkansas legislation is pending that would further reduces Arkansas’ individual and corporate income tax rates. Specifically, Senate Bill 8 would reduce the highest corporate income tax rate to 4.8 percent for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024.

The Florida Department of Revenue issued revised guidance on the state’s “certified audit program,” which gives taxpayers the opportunity to hire qualified CPA firms to review their sales and use and local option tax compliance to identify exposures and underpayments. As an incentive to incur the cost of a certified audit, if tax is owed, the Department will waive penalties and abate interest up to $25,000. Any interest in excess of $25,000 will be 25 percent abated.

Recently, guidance was issued on how P.L. 86-272 applies for purposes of the City of Portland Business License Tax, Multnomah County Business Income Tax, and Metro Supportive Housing Services Business Income Tax. For tax years beginning prior to January 1, 2023, P.L 86-272 protections applied to a business on an intrastate basis meaning that a business was protected unless its activities within the relevant local jurisdictions exceeded solicitation of sales of tangible personal property. For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, all three jurisdictions have adopted market-based sourcing and have revised their application of P.L. 86-272 to apply on an interstate basis meaning that protection will apply only when a business’s activities in the state of Oregon do not exceed solicitation of sales of tangible personal property.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently affirmed a chancery court’s conclusion that a taxpayer qualified for an industrial machinery sales tax exemption. The taxpayer at issue rented hygienically clean textiles to its customers for a single use, after which the textiles were retrieved to be sanitized by the taxpayer so they could be rented out again. The Department asserted that the taxpayer was not “processing” tangible personal property because it did not transform materials into a different state or form than their original existence. In other words, the textiles were in the same form before the sterilization process as they were afterwards.  The court noted that Tennessee's industrial machinery exemption did not require the creation of entirely or substantially new products, but focused was on the change in the state or form of materials during processing. The court determined that the taxpayer's sanitization process— whereby contaminants were removed, and the textiles were transformed into hygienically-clean textiles that were fit for consumption—undisputedly changed the state of the textiles.

Multistate

Multistate:  Recent Corporate Rate Reductions

In Kansas, the Secretary of the Department of Revenue filed a notice in the Kansas Register announcing that the normal corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 4 percent to 3.5 percent effective January 1, 2024. The rate reduction stems from the APEX legislation enacted in Kansas in 2022. Under this law, the corporate income tax rate will be reduced by 0.5 percent for all businesses upon the commencement of a qualifying APEX Project in the state

Senate Bill 8, which further reduces Arkansas’ individual and corporate income tax rates, has been enacted. Recall, in April, legislation was enacted that reduced Arkansas’ highest corporate income tax rate that applies to net income exceeding $25,000 from 5.3 percent to 5.1 percent effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023.  Senate Bill 8 further reduces the highest rate to 4.8 percent for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024; the new rate applies to net income exceeding $11,000. Please stay tuned to TWIST for future corporate rate updates. 

Florida

Florida: Reminder of Sales Tax Certified Audit Program.

The Florida Department of Revenue recently issued revised guidance on the state’s “certified audit program.” Similar to other state’s managed audit programs, this program gives taxpayers the opportunity to hire qualified CPA firms to review their sales and use and local option tax compliance to identify exposures and underpayments. As an incentive to incur the cost of a certified audit, if tax is owed as a result of the audit, the Department will waive penalties and abate interest up to $25,000. Any interest in excess of $25,000 will be 25 percent abated. Additionally, except in cases of fraud or misrepresentation, the Department will not audit taxpayers for the same years covered by the certified audit. Taxpayers who have not been mailed a Notice of Intent to Audit Books and Records (Form DR-840) from the Department are eligible for the program. Please contact Amanda Ribeiro with questions.

Oregon

Oregon: Portland Localities Address Application of P.L. 86-272 to Business Taxes

Recently, guidance was issued on the application of P.L. 86-272 for purposes of the City of Portland Business License Tax, Multnomah County Business Income Tax, and Metro Supportive Housing Services Business Income Tax. For tax years beginning prior to January 1, 2023, P.L 86-272 protections applied to a business on an intrastate basis, meaning that a business was protected unless its activities within the relevant local jurisdictions exceeded solicitation of sales (or activities entirely ancillary to solicitation of sales) of tangible personal property.

For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, all three jurisdictions have adopted market-based sourcing and have revised their application of P.L. 86-272 to apply on an interstate basis, meaning that protection will apply only when a business’s activities in Oregon do not exceed solicitation of sales (and activities entirely ancillary to solicitation of sales) of tangible personal property. In other words, a business with nexus in the local Portland jurisdictions, whose activities exceed solicitation of sales of tangible personal property anywhere within the State of Oregon, will not be protected from local taxes under P.L. 86-272.  Please contact Rob Passmore with questions on the revised policy. 

Tennessee

Tennessee: Taxpayer Not Required to Create New Product to Qualify for the Industrial Machinery Exemption

The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently affirmed a chancery court’s conclusion that a taxpayer qualified for an industrial machinery sales tax exemption. The taxpayer at issue rented hygienically clean textiles to its customers for a single use, after which the textiles were retrieved by the taxpayer to be sanitized so they could be rented out again. The taxpayer's sanitizing process required it to submerge textiles into highly specific chemicals to remove soils from the textiles. At issue was whether the taxpayer was entitled to the state’s industrial machinery sales and use tax exemption for equipment used at its Tennessee facilities. “Industrial machinery” means “[m]achinery, apparatus and equipment with all associated parts . . . that is necessary to, and primarily for, the fabrication or processing of tangible personal property for resale and consumption off the premises . . . by one who engages in such fabrication or processing as one’s principal business.” After originally granting the certificates of exemption, the Department of Revenue reversed course and determined the taxpayer did not qualify.  A hearing was held on the issue, and the ALJ determined that the taxpayer was not “processing” tangible personal property because it did not transform materials into a different state or form than their original existence. In other words, the textiles (e.g., linens, uniforms, towels, etc.) were in the same form before the sterilization process as they were afterwards.  Although the taxpayer’s activities created a marketable product because the textiles could not be leased in soiled or unsterile conditions, they did not create a new and different substantive product.  After a chancery court issued a decision in favor of the taxpayer, the Department appealed.

The sole dispute on appeal was whether the taxpayer’s operations constituted processing, which was not a defined term in Tennessee law.  However, in an earlier case, Beare Co. v. Tennessee Department of Revenue, the Tennessee Supreme Court had attempted to define the term.  While not directly on point, the court noted that nothing in the Beare decision indicated that the change in state or form could not be to a state or form the textile had been in at some point in the past. All that was required was that each time the articles or materials were submitted to a taxpayer’s operations, they must have been in a state or form different than the state or form in which they were after undergoing the process.  The court found support for this interpretation in an Ohio case in which laundering operations were considered processing because they changed the state of textiles and made them marketable. Although there were also cases reaching the opposite conclusion from other jurisdictions, the court noted that Tennessee's industrial machinery exemption did not require the creation of entirely or substantially new products. Rather, as highlighted in Beare, the focus was on the change in the state or form of materials during processing. The court determined that the taxpayer's sanitization process— wherein contaminants were removed, and the textiles were transformed into hygienically-clean and absorbent textiles that were fit for consumption—undisputedly changed the state of the textiles. As such, the court concluded that the taxpayer qualified for the industrial machinery exemption. Please contact Justin Stringfield with questions on Alsco, Inc. v. Tennessee Dep’t of Revenue.

Meet our podcast team

Image of Sarah McGahan
Sarah McGahan
Managing Director, State & Local Tax, KPMG US

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