On Thursday, December 31, 2015, the Supreme Court of California issued its decision in Gillette Co. v. Franchise Tax Board, reversing the California Court of Appeal and holding that the Multistate Tax Compact is not a binding compact between its member states. Accordingly, the California legislature had the authority to, and did in fact, replace the state’s equally weighted apportionment formula with a double-weighted-sales formula in 1993. This highly anticipated decision by the California high court will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the landscape of ongoing disputes among taxpayers and revenue departments regarding Compact states’ ability to modify the apportionment formula, as well as potentially other features of the Compact.
Alston & Bird’s full SALT advisory can be found here: http://www.alston.com/advisories/Gillette-overturned/.
