The South Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled against Duke Energy Corporation (“Duke”) in Duke’s claim for a $126 million state income tax refund. The issue came down to whether gross receipts from Duke’s sales of short-term investments should be included in the apportionment fraction used by South Carolina to divide income among South Carolina and other states in which Duke operates. The South Carolina Supreme Court’s opinion is important because it can pose significant hurdles to businesses with multi-state operations that have planned with investment income to ...
The income of a multi-state business subject to tax in South Carolina is ordinarily determined by allocating certain income to South Carolina and apportioning the remainder of the business's income based on the ratio of South Carolina sales to gross sales everywhere. However, the law permits a taxpayer or the South Carolina Department of Revenue to use an alternative method when the ordinary allocation and apportionment rules do not fairly represent the extent of a taxpayer's business activities in South Carolina.
On December 23, 2014 the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an ...
On July 24, 2013 the South Carolina Supreme Court issued its opinion in the case of Centex International, Inc. v. South Carolina Department of Revenue, Opinion No. 27288. In a 3-2 decision, the Court found that a partnership did not qualify for the infrastructure tax credit and that its corporate owners could not claim the infrastructure tax credit. The partnership clearly incurred infrastructure expenses, but the Department of Revenue argued that only a corporate taxpayer was entitled to earn and claim the credit. The Court agreed.
The Court framed its analysis by reciting general ...