29 State Tax & Business Developments You May Want to Know - August 21, 2017

The following are state tax and business developments I have curated since August 14th, and posted in the LEVERAGE SALT LinkedIn group:

1. Resistance is not Always Futile: New Decision in Ongoing Delaware Unclaimed Property Audit Litigation

2. MTC Voluntary Disclosure Initiative for Online Marketplace Sellers (i.e., Amazon FBA program)

3. A State Tax Administrator's Perspective on Partnership Taxation

4. Illinois Court Upholds Cook County’s Beverage Tax Finding It Passes Constitutional Muster and Related Developments

5. Webinar: August 24th - Best Practices in Achieving Obsolescence Adjustments for Complex and Commercial Properties

6. State Corporate Income Tax Rules for Sourcing of Revenue for Law Firms

7. Nationwide Sales/Use Tax Update - September 12, 2017

8. Credits Can No Longer Be Applied Against Oregon’s Minimum Tax

9. Total Solar Eclipse Won’t Black Out State Taxes

10. South Carolina going after Amazon (the marketplace facilitator) for not collecting sales tax on behalf of the businesses that use the marketplace to sell products to SC residents

11. Summary of New York Corporation Tax Legislation Enacted after the 2016-2017 Budget

12. New York Amendments Regarding Sales Tax Rules for Transactions between Certain Related Entities and for Purchases Made by Nonresident Businesses

13. Technology Company State Tax Guide from Moss Adams (Very Nicely Done)

14. Illinois Amends Rule Regarding Alternative Apportionment

15. Amazon’s Marketplace Business Isn’t a Tax Avoidance Scheme

16. A comparison of enterprise zone programs in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin

17. MTC National Nexus Program Adds 2 More Participating States to Online Marketplace Seller Voluntary Disclosure Initiative

18. Rhode Island DOT Announces that it Will Accept Applications for Recently Enacted Amnesty Program Beginning December 1

19. California FTB Issues Draft Proposed New Pass-Through Entity Withholding Regulation

20. Minnesota Tax Court Holds that Taxpayer May Apply NOL Carryovers from an Acquired Entity to Full Extent Permitted under IRC § 382

21. New North Carolina Law Includes Changes to Intercompany Expense Addback Statute, Added Franchise Tax Base Deduction, and Definition of Business Income

22. Texas Court of Appeals Upholds Subcontractor Exclusion While Reversing and Remanding on Taxpayer COGS Methodology

23. Memo Explains Recent New York Law Changes on Transactions Involving TPP Resold Between Certain Related Entities

24. California Supreme Court Denies Rehearing in Recent Case Involving Taxation of a Transfer of Legal Entity Interests

25. Washington DOR Reissues Emergency Amended B&O Tax Rule on Financial Institution Apportionment to Conform with MTC Changes

26. Three Big Problems with Sales Taxes Today — and How to Fix Them

27. Should Online Platforms Collect Sales Tax For Third-Party Sellers?

28. The United States Of Unicorns: Every US Company Worth $1B+ In One Map

29. Are Remote Retailers and Marketplace Providers in the 'Path of Totality'?

The above represents 'general curating' of state tax developments into one spot. If you still feel overwhelmed by the volume of state tax developments, please consider my 'custom curating' service. Meaning, clients hire LS to daily curate state tax developments relating to a specific industry, state(s), tax type and issue. You can make it as granular as you prefer. This allows you to reduce information overload, and only get the information you need to help your clients or company. This service is provided on a fixed-fee or subscription basis. Contact me at strahle@leveragesalt.com.

PROVIDE REAL VALUE. NOT NOISE.

If you've been paying attention, which I'm sure you have, I am constantly changing my website and thinking of ways to market, re-market, re-package or change the way I present my services and myself. This is the life of a solo state tax consultant. I am always thinking. Always learning. AND I can implement changes whenever I want - maybe sometimes hastily, but I would rather be innovative and try things, then to be stuck in the trap of 'that's the way we have always done it,' or changes take time to get approved by layers of bureaucracy and by the time they get approved all momentum and enthusiasm about the change is long gone.

Life is too short to be the same as everybody else, and that is exactly what we have in the public accounting and law firm world. Everybody is the same. The same boring websites. The same descriptions. The same strategic visions. The same services. The same message. The same hot topics. Every firm is trying to be the first to write about a hot topic, or the first to go in-depth about a topic. I should know. I spend my days daily reviewing state tax developments and writing about them. I also conduct research for clients and attempt to provide insight and actionable, innovative, intelligence (I just made that term up, you can feel free to use it). 

There is so much 'noise' in the world. So much knowledge and information being spewed on the internet and social media, while you are just trying to do your job. The question is - what do you need to know to do your job? How can you best help your company or your client? Are you going deep enough into the details of the law, cases, etc. to find true value? Or are you just scratching the surface, going from meeting to meeting, running around with your head cut-off, waiting for lightning to strike? 

Life is too short to be boring. Too short to not take the risk to be creative. 

BE AUTHENTIC. BE REAL. DON'T TRY TO BE SOMETHING YOUR NOT.

What is your firm good at? What are you good at? How can you be different? How ARE you different? 

Be different. Be creative. Provide REAL VALUE, NOT NOISE.

25th Anniversary, 22 Year Career, High School Senior, 4 Year Old Firm, Building Something New

My wife and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow (August 8th). We celebrated it over the weekend with a little get away in downtown Nashville. I set up the whole weekend to surprise my wife. We stayed in a fancy hotel and had a nice dinner. I had 25 long-stem red roses delivered to the room. It was a great weekend. 

In addition to being married for 25 years, I have been doing state taxes for 22 years. That sounds crazy. I used to look at people who had been in their career long and be like, "wow," you must really know your stuff. Now I am one of those. Crazy how time flies. Speaking of time, my oldest daughter will be a senior in high school which starts this week. We are busy talking about college options and whether college is still a good investment. I have lots of opinions on this, but will hold that for another day. 

As far as LEVERAGE SALT, LLC goes. If you have been following along, I started the LEVERAGE SALT blog in 2009. I started the LEVERAGE SALT LinkedIn group in 2012 and LEVERAGE SALT, LLC in 2013. Consequently, I have been on my own for 4 years. That even sounds like a long time to me. Needless to say, I have been more successful than I could have thought when I started LS, LLC. I have made more money and had more freedom than ever before. During that time, my family and I moved ourselves from Richmond, Virginia to Nashville, Tennessee and totally renovated a house on 16 acres. We built my wife's dream home. Crazy stuff. I don't say this stuff to brag. I say this stuff to tell you my story and let you know that life is too short to not go for what you want. What are you waiting for? Permission? 

Running your own firm, especially by yourself, can be lonely at times. I find myself wanting to work at a firm again just to have more interaction. However, once you have the money, the freedom is something you can't put a price on. 

One of the things I love about having my own firm is that I can implement ideas quickly. Perhaps sometimes too quickly. Regardless, I am continually thinking of new ideas, opportunities, ways to help state tax professionals do more, get more done, etc. without the bureaucracy of large firms. 

At my core, I love analyzing court cases, rulings, daily developments and writing about them. I also love handling controversy - I call it, "research with a purpose." You may have noticed that I am attempting to build a state tax controversy innovation center. The goal of the Center is to serve and promote state tax controversy professionals across the country by building a mastermind network, knowledge sharing publication, CPE, and various tools. 

I want to thank you for reading my blog. Following along on my crazy story. I hope you find my blog useful and my story helpful. 

Please connect with me on LinkedIn. Send me an e-mail. Subscribe to the blog. Join the LinkedIn group. I would love to hear your story. I may start promoting and sharing stories of other tax professionals on my blog in the near future. Lots of ideas. Lots of plans. 

Have a great week!

13 Books You Should Read & Saturday Musings (INNOVATION)

Good morning. It's Saturday. I have multiple 'land chores' on the schedule for today. If you don't know, we bought 16 acres near Nashville last year. Totally gutted the house and completed a 6 month renovation last December. It's awesome having no one around us. First time I have lived in the country. The only challenge is the land. Getting it and keeping it the way you want it. 12 acres are trees, so I have approximately 4 acres or so of mowing, weed killing, tree cutting, etc., etc., etc. 

In any case, back to state taxes.

If you have noticed, over the past couple of weeks I have started to curate state tax AND business developments into the LEVERAGE SALT LinkedIn group. I think this is a good way to put multiple pieces of important information into one place. I hope you are liking the format. 

In regards to my practice, I am constantly looking for new ways, new services, changing my website, changing my marketing, contacting new people, developing new relationships - trying to change the state tax world for the better. I don't want to just do what everyone else is doing. I want to create and innovate. Do something new. Develop a new angle. A fresh approach. A better way.

Contact me with your ideas. Your passions.

How would you change the state tax profession?

How can you better serve your clients?

What does your tax department really need from your state tax consultant and why aren't you getting it?

I am a state tax partner and writer. In addition to the 40+ articles with my name on it, I have ghost-written several articles for firms. Let me know if you are interested in learning more to help your firm grow its practice.

Some of my favorite books I have read are:

1. Tribes by Seth Godin
2. 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
3. Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone
4. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
5. One Thing by Gary Keller
6. Crush IT! by Gary Vaynerchuk
7. Start with Why by Simon Sinek
8. REWORK by Jason Fried
9. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
10. Make Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
11. Deep Work by Cal Newport
12. So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
13. The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth by Chris Brogan 

Have a great weekend!

Tax Legislation: Are We Asking The Right Questions?

State tax developments are everywhere. They happen daily. The question is - are we just reporting them or are we challenging them?

This legislative season has seen crazy proposals to raise revenue, balance budgets - all influenced by political pressures and confusion. We have policy organizations submitting reports and studies asserting that certain proposals are ridiculous or would either be unfair or detrimental to the state and specific taxpayers. This complexity not only applies to state tax legislatures, but also the federal government - as we know. The problem is that states generally have to balance their budgets every year to operate (although apparently that doesn't apply to Illinois).

One thing I noticed is that state legislative sessions are focused on raising revenue. Always asking what can or should be taxed? What new forms of business do we need to tax? What tax revenue are we missing out on?

I think those are the wrong questions. The questions we should be asking are:

• What services should the state or federal government provide?
• To what extent ($$) should the government provide those services?
• How do we prioritize those services?
• What is the cost/benefit of providing those services?
• At what point does the provision of those services cause detriment to citizens and our economy? 
• What oversight will each service have to avoid waste and efficient use of taxpayer dollars?

We don't always need more revenue. We need to rethink and revamp the purpose of government. Our governments should be lean and efficient. They should provide us with what we need most - not more or less. It's not about tax revenue, it's about efficient government. It's about the health and wealth of our country - financially, physically and spiritually. 

If we never ask the right questions, we won't get the right answers.

DON'T BE A ROBOT. PROVIDE LEVERAGE.

With all the talk of innovation, robotics and artificial intelligence changing the landscape of how tax departments function, it is imperative that tax professionals position themselves as something more than data movers.

Certain areas of accounting and tax have been commodities for years. Now, with technology, it will become even more so. As I have been saying for years, the real value of a tax consultant is providing leverage - knowledge, judgment and advocacy. In other words, it isn't the data that helps a company win an audit, determine a position on a return, or plan to minimize tax on a merger or acquisition. It is the knowledge, judgment and advocacy (expertise) of the tax professional and his or her ability to interpret and apply the law to specific data. The experience and connections of a tax professional cannot be mimicked by a computer or robot.

Position yourself to be valuable. Position yourself to provide leverage.

That's my objective.