Episodes
Wednesday May 11, 2022
SALT issues that impact Louisiana taxpayers
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Wednesday May 11, 2022
In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, we speak with Jaye Calhoun, a partner in the New Orleans office of Kean Miller, about some of the challenges businesses face when dealing with state and local tax. They discuss some of the current constitutional amendments and bills advancing through the state legislature and how it could potentially affect taxpayers. Jaye also shares how her broad exposure to many tax organizations has influenced the issues she chooses to dig into as an attorney.
Topics discussed in this episode:
How state and local tax issues impact taxpayers who do business in Louisiana
What it means to be a remote seller
The current constitutional amendment on the ballot called The Louisiana Adjustment of Ad Valorem Tax Rates Amendment
The bill advancing through the state legislature that deals with the interest on payments made under protest
The leadership position Jaye has held
What tax issues to look out for in the future
What You Will Learn:
[04:56] How SALT issues impact Louisiana businesses
[08:01] Louisiana’s version of uniformity
[15:12] City rate differentials
[15:43] What are remote sellers
[18:18] How big companies handle home rule city taxes
[23:31] The bill that deals with payments made under protest
[30:33] Why Jaye likes to the collaborate aspect of tax practice
[37:53] The leadership positions Jaye has held
[44:18] Tax issues to watch out for
Quotables:
“The real issue that you face when you deal with Louisiana and the sales and use tax area, is that the parishes each get to independently administer and collect their own taxes. So, you don’t really have one centralized collector.” - Jaye Calhoun [05:46]
“We don’t want people gaming the system, essentially paying and then we have to pay them back with interest later, but you’re not investing with the tax collector….I can’t even imagine a client coming to me saying, you know, I looked at options in the market and I think I’m going to go invest with the tax collector.” - Jaye Calhoun [27:56]
“So we as TaxOps are actively engaged in this Colorado tax auditor coalition….They don’t want to be the bad guy. They want to teach people to do the right thing. But at the same time, they’re there to collect money for their cities, but it is a lot of like open sharing information resources..So there is a lot of collaboration and inviting in.” - Meredith Smith [32:08]
“I think the federal government does a really good job of educating the public as to what the rules are. They do the enforcement, they do the collection, but they understand their mission to educate as well. As Meredith was saying, departments don’t have a lot of money now, but maybe that is where your tax bar or professional organizations can help.” - Jaye Calhoun [34:57]
Relevant Links:
Jaye Calhoun at Kean Miller: https://www.keanmiller.com/jaye-a-calhoun.html
Jaye Calhoun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaye-calhoun-8b9b459/
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
Litigating SALT Cases with Leah Robinson (Part 2)
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
In the second episode of a two-part series, we continue our conversation with Leah Robinson, an attorney and state and local tax partner with Mayer Brown in New York. Leah continues to discuss some of the most interesting tax cases she has litigated, her thoughts on what could be deemed government overreach, and where she has seen some recent state auditor “gotchas” that we should all be aware of.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
How Leah approaches each case
After being at the IRS and then representing clients against the state, how does she feel about the mentality with the IRS and the state?
Where she sees government overreach beyond what is allowable under the constitution
What You Will Discover:
[00:24] How Leah decides how to approach each case
[02:38] The mentality between the IRS vs the state
[06:24] Looking how a product functions from a tech point of view
[10:27] Examples of overreach
[15:09] Where she sees government overreach
[28:06] An interesting thing about the compliance effort
Quotables:
“There definitely are cases where we want an answer. We need the answer, and if we can have a settlement that also gives us a going forward answer, fine, but you can’t always get that.”- Leah Robinson [01:57]
“And I get it. The business folks in a company want to describe themselves a certain way. They want to appeal to their client base, but that doesn’t mean that that’s what the technology really is doing.”- Leah Robinson [06:45]
“I think post-Wayfair, there’s been an assumption that economic nexus is the end of the story.”- Leah Robinson [15:45]
“I still think physical presence is an easier standard, and cookies, even though they are intangibles, they still take up space, right? My hard drive has a limited amount of space. So even things that are intangible like software, they still take up space on the server, on a hard drive, etc.”- Leah Robinson [25:35]
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Litigating SALT Cases with Leah Robinson (Part 1)
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
In the first episode of a two-part series, we chat with Leah Robinson, an attorney and state and local tax partner with Mayer Brown in New York. Leah talks about some of the most interesting tax cases she has litigated, her thoughts on what could be deemed government overreach, and where she has seen some recent state auditor “gotchas” that we should all be aware of.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
What are some of the most interesting SALT cases that Leah has seen and litigated?
What You Will Discover:
[00:43] Leah’s background
[05:24] The first case she helped with the litigation
[07:48] Her favorite cases to work on
[12:58] The decision whether to litigate
[20:08] The time it takes for private letter rulings and advisory opinions
[24:18] Whether to pay or not pay
Quotables:
“What do they do in some of the other courts when you need to know an answer, but there’s no way to get one?”- Leah Robinson [10:45]
“There’s a lot of sensitivities that go into the corporation…, but the business side decision on whether to litigate, not just how likely are we to win, but all of these soft considerations. And often in my experience, those often rule the day.”- Leah Robinson [16:51]
“It’s actually why it’s so important for us to get along, right? There are a number of us who are direct competitors, but are also friendly and like connect with each other. Obviously, not breaking confidentiality provisions and closing agreements, but getting a sense of what’s going on and what issues are we seeing go up, where the settlement ranges. We have to talk to each other, because the states know… you know, each individual department of revenue knows what it’s doing with all different taxpayers.”- Leah Robinson [18:32]
“It’s a huge issue to pay, but the bigger issue is if you don’t pay, the interest becomes a whole other player in the analysis. And I have changed my story on this, right? I now advise companies for the most part to pay. ‘Let’s pay and seek a refund’ or in some jurisdictions if we’re litigating, we can pay and get an agreement with the state”- Leah Robinson [25:00]
Monday Jan 10, 2022
Talking about SALT with Richard Pomp and Jordan Goodman (Part 2)
Monday Jan 10, 2022
Monday Jan 10, 2022
In the second episode of a two-part series, we continue our conversation with Richard Pomp, Professor at the University of Connecticut Law School and Adjunct Professor at NYU Law in the LLM program in tax, and Jordan Goodman, partner at HMB Legal Counsel. They share their thoughts on prominent tax cases and other state and local tax topics.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
What are some recent tax decisions that they think are bad policy?
What You Will Discover:
[00:31] Tax decisions they think are bad policies
[06:48] Their thoughts on the Express Scripts case
[10:30] American Honda and Arkansas Supreme Court
[14:42] The current case regarding Sirius XM Radio in Texas
[18:34] How to impose sales tax through the B&H Photo case
Quotables:
“I’ve seen it where they use cost of goods sold because it doesn’t matter for fellow purposes. It’s just a deduction, but the state will jump on it, and the opposite in Texas. Unless you call it cost of goods sold, you don’t get it as cost of goods sold even if it is cost of goods sold.” - Jordan Goodman [08:02]
“I don’t care what piece of paper you give the store. What did you pay for out of your cash. That’s the only thing that matters.” - Richard Pomp [23:28]
Relevant Links:
Jordan Goodman on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jordanmgoodman
HMB Legal Counsel: hmblaw.com
Richard Pomp: law.uconn.edu/person/richard-pomp
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Discussing SALT with Richard Pomp and Jordan Goodman (Part 1)
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Monday Dec 13, 2021
In the first episode of a two-part series, we speak with Richard Pomp, Professor at the University of Connecticut Law School and Adjunct Professor at NYU Law in the LLM program in tax, and Jordan Goodman, partner at HMB Legal Counsel. Richard and Jordan tell the backstory of how their Top 10 list regarding state and local taxes came to be and how they determine what to discuss. They also share their thoughts on recent tax issues including the North Carolina tax case against quad graphics and public law 86-272.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
How “The Big East Brawl” started and why they continue to banter with each other
How they determine what to talk about
Their thoughts and opinions on recent tax issues including North Carolina’s tax case against Quad Graphics and the MTC’s revised statement regarding Public Law 86-272
What You Will Discover:
[00:38] The origin story of “The Big East Brawl”
[04:52] How they determine what to talk about
[09:14] Their thoughts on North Carolina’s tax case against Quad Graphics
[17:42] Contingency and alternative fee arrangements
[20:14] Breaking down complex issues to the common man
[23:12] Their opinions on MTC’s revised statement for Public Law 86-272
Quotables:
“We go back and forth. Jordan puts together the outline. I always give him credit, and make it clear that all the mistakes are his.” - Richard Pomp [05:47]
“Part of Professor Pomp’s genius is the ability to break it down to everybody, right? To the reasonable person, common man, common woman, common person. That’s what his genius is is being able to take our complex, most complex stuff and say ‘Here’s how it is,’ and use general things found in a kitchen to explain it to a judge so they can understand it.” - Jordan Goodman [20:43]
“If the law doesn’t make sense anymore, you either got to expand it to include everybody or get rid of it from a policy perspective.” - Jordan Goodman [25:20]
Relevant Links:
Jordan Goodman on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jordanmgoodman
HMB Legal Counsel: hmblaw.com
Richard Pomp: law.uconn.edu/person/richard-pomp
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Public Law 86-272 with Brian Hamer (Part 2)
Monday Nov 15, 2021
Monday Nov 15, 2021
In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, we continue our conversation with Brian Hamer, who serves as counsel at the Multistate Tax Commission, about the revisions made to the Statement of Information concerning practices of Public Law 86-272. In the second part of this two-part series, Brian addresses what these revisions have on states and taxpayers.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
What questions are internet retailers asking about the new revisions? How does a taxpayer know what to apply?
What do states have to do to adopt the modernized revisions?
Does Brian think there will come a time when Public Law 86-272 will disappear?
What You Will Discover:
[00:24] How the updates applies to internet retailers
[04:24] How a taxpayer know what to apply
[08:05] Why the interest and application of Public Law 86-272 is more prevalent
[16:13] What the states do from here
[26:36] If there will come a time when Public Law 86-272 will go away
Quotables:
“It’s important to note that what the MTC has attempted to do here is not to engage in some policy making activity enterprise, but rather to attempt to apply the statute from 1959 to these modern business activities.” - Brian Hamer [03:32]
“I think this is something that we lose sight of. I think there’s perhaps traditionally been this notion that there is a physical presence requirement in the statute, but it just doesn’t exist, and as I say specifically, Congress rejected that approach.” - Brian Hamer [14:53]
“Believe this or not that the motivation for the Statement of Information and the recent revisions of the statement is really to benefit taxpayers. That the thought was that it was important for taxpayers to understand where states are coming from, because it’s all about notice here. Taxpayers should not be taken by surprise.” - Brian Hamer [17:13]
“If 86-272 is not the answer, what is the answer? And the answer frankly is that states need to enact a system of thresholds.” - Brian Hamer [25:52]
Relevant Links:
The Multistate Tax Commission: https://www.mtc.gov
Multistate Tax Commission with Helen Hecht: taxops.com/multistate-tax-commission-with-helen-hecht
Brian Hamber on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brian-hamer-528b67b4
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
Record Payroll Tax
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
In this episode, Stacey Roberts and Alexander Korzhen, from TaxOps’ SALTovation Team, share some best practices with handling your state and local payroll taxes.
What You Will Discover:
[00:52] The effects of a remote workforce
[02:20] Things to keep in mind with PEOs
[07:48] Reviewing employee mapping
[09:53] Some takeaways
Quotables:
“So what we’re seeing is obviously a lot more employees are now working from home and we have to reevaluate our payroll map, so to speak.” -Alexander Korzhen [02:01]
“I think long story short there, if a taxpayer is signing up with a payroll processor, just keep in mind that that’s their job.” -Stacey Roberts [06:54]
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Public Law 86-272 with Brian Hamer (Part 1)
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Monday Nov 01, 2021
In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, we speak with Brian Hamer, who serves as counsel at the Multistate Tax Commission, about the revisions made to the Statement of Information concerning the practices of Public Law 86-272. In this first part of a two-part series, Brian discusses the history of this law. He also explores the new changes and what it means to businesses and states in the future.
Questions asked and answered in this Episode:
What was updated in the statute to address modern business activities?
Why is there such interest in this process?
What are some of the big revisions to the Statement of Information?
What You Will Discover:
[01:21] What was updated in the statute
[03:30] Some flaws in the statute
[06:36] The Statement of Information
[09:39] Some of the the big revisions
[12:50] The thinking behind the 11 scenarios
Quotables:
“But this whole process has been the subject of much attention. It’s really kind of a fascinating thing.” - Brian Hamer [08:54]
“I would say that the most consequential revision relates to how the statute applies to business activities conducted via the internet.” - Brian Hamer [10:18]
“The members of the work group were not required to explain their thinking, but there were a couple of themes that definitely came out over the course of the discussion, the kind of considerations that motivated the ultimate decision.” - Brian Hamer [13:43]
Relevant Links:
The Multistate Tax Commission: https://www.mtc.gov
Multistate Tax Commission with Helen Hecht: taxops.com/multistate-tax-commission-with-helen-hecht
Brian Hamber on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brian-hamer-528b67b4