Source: http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/kc/category/policy-area/economics-and-finance/tax-and-budget/tax-policy
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 15:10:26+00:00

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As Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den illustrates, not all 5-4 Supreme Court cases involve high-profile, controversial issues where the Justices are divided on ideological lines.
In this case the Supreme Court held 5-4 that a treaty forbids the State of Washington from imposing a tax upon members of the Yakama Nation that import fuel.
An 1855 treaty between the United States and the Yakama Nation reserves to the Yamakas “the right, in common with the citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public highways.” A Washington statute taxes fuel importers who bring large quantities of fuel into the state by ground transportation. Cougar Den is a wholesale fuel importer owned by a Yakama member that transports fuel by truck from Oregon to Yakama-owned gas stations in Washington. Cougar Den argued the treaty preempted the tax.
In The Law of Trusts and Trustees, George Gleason Bogert describes trusts as a “legal abstraction: a fiction created to represent the tripartite relationship among a settlor, a trustee, and a beneficiary.” The debatable location of a trust makes it difficult for courts to agree which jurisdictions may tax a trust’s income. For example, what if only a trust beneficiary is located in the state, may the state tax the trust’s income?
In North Carolina Department of Revenue v. The Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust the Supreme Court will decide whether the Due Process Clause prohibits states from taxing trusts based on trust beneficiaries’ in-state residency.
In 2017, because they lacked the authority to require the collection of sales taxes on remote sales, states and local governments lost up to $13 billion. With one Midwestern state leading the way, this legal and fiscal landscape could change soon, depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in South Dakota v. Wayfair.
For now, a 1992 decision, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, is the law of the land. It says that, minus congressional action, a state can only require businesses with a substantial presence, or nexus, to collect and remit the sales tax. That ruling has affected not only state tax bases, but the competitiveness of Main Street businesses as well — particularly with the rise of electronic commerce (see line graph).
Four years ago, The Council of State Governments, in partnership with the State and Local Legal Center and members of the Big Seven organizations representing state and local governments, filed an amicus brief critiquing Quill, which prompted Justice Anthony Kennedy to ask for a case to overturn the ruling.
The State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) filed a Supreme Court amicus brief in one of the most important cases of the organization's 35-year tenure: South Dakota v. Wayfair.
In this case South Dakota is asking the Supreme Court to rule that states and local governments may require retailers with no in-state physical presence to collect sales tax. Ruling this way will require the Supreme Court to overturn long-standing precedent.
Wisconsin lawmakers have eliminated a decades-old state property tax that had been used to protect public and private forestlands. This change will result in savings of about $27 for the average homeowner and an annual loss in state revenue of approximately $90 million, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The state will instead use general-fund dollars to pay for programs related to fire prevention, pest control, land acquisition, recreation and overall forest health.
On November 2, House Republican lawmakers released their plan to retool the U.S. tax code, the biggest adjustment in over 30 years. This far-reaching bill, titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, seeks to streamline the existing code and lower the corporate rate to a level closer to that of other nations. The legislation also eliminates or changes some popular deductions and makes adjustments to the use of so-called pass through entities.
The State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) has filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to agree to hear South Dakota’s petition in South Dakota v. Wayfair. In this case South Dakota is asking the Supreme Court to hold that states may require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax.

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