On June 19th, a group of diverse businesses from a variety of industries announced the formation of the Transportation Electrification Accord (“Accord”). This announcement signaled an increasingly firm consensus around the importance of open, resilient, and cooperative approaches to transportation electrification — and major companies and organizations, some of whom have not previously been active in this realm (such as the Edison Electric Institute, Southern Company, AEP, GM, and Honda) have come together around this effort.

The Louisiana Legislature is considering last minute legislation to change the effective date of legislation allowing the State to tax remote sellers but has not acted to make other centralized collection legislation operative.  It may not have to.

Today, in a 5-4 decision with far-reaching implications, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its…

By the Kean Miller State and Local Tax Team

On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Dkt. No, 17-494, 585 U.S. __ (June 21, 2018).  In addition to overturning the physical presence substantial nexus standard applicable to use tax collection requirements articulated…

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued perhaps the most significant and far-reaching decision affecting state sales and use tax collection since its Quill v. North Dakota decision in 1992.  The high court expressly overruled the Quill decision, stating that the decision’s “physical present rule…is unsound and incorrect.”  As a result of today’s…

In Camp v. Robinson, No. 10609D, (La. Bd. Tax App. June 13, 2018), the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals (the “Board”) held that Louisiana’s Individual Net Capital Gain Exclusion applies to a multi-step transaction.  In so holding, the Board read more broadly the scope of the transactions to which the capital gain exclusion may…

image credit: Ineke Huizing
PFAS—a class of chemical substances commonly used in a wide range of products—are drawing increased scrutiny from regulators.  Businesses and municipalities should closely follow these developments, as they create both new risks of liability for substantial response costs and opportunities to make gains on environmental quality.
Short for “per- and polyfluoroalkyl…

On March 5, 2018, the West Virginia Legislature passed new legislation known as the Cotenancy Modernization and Majority Protection Act, W. Va. Code § 37B-1-1 et seq. (Cotenancy Statute). This new Cotenancy Statute, which became effective June 3, 2018, is intended to facilitate oil and gas development of West Virginia properties that have numerous fractional oil and gas owners. It applies to tracts in which there are seven or more owners of the oil and gas in place, and changes West Virginia law by allowing an operator to produce oil and gas without the consent of all oil and gas owners under certain circumstances.
Background
Prior to passage of the Cotenancy Statute, West Virginia law mandated consent of 100 percent of the oil and gas owners before an operator could lawfully develop the oil and gas estate. If any oil and gas owner refused to sign a lease, regardless of how small that non-consenting owner’s fractional interest, the operator was compelled to either forego development or file a partition action under W. Va. Code § 37-4-3. Through partition, an operator could acquire the non-consenting owner’s interest at fair market value, as appraised by three special commissioners appointed by the court.

Over the last two or more years, the Louisiana Department of Revenue (the “Department”) has audited oil and gas producers operating in the state for severance-oil tax compliance.  Of the completed audits, a significant number have resulted in a formal assessment, and many of those assessments are the subject of current, ongoing litigation. The Department…