Scott Smith
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Articles by Scott Smith
Virginia’s change to its policy of blended apportionment
Virginia has a longstanding administrative policy requiring blended apportionment for corporate partners of partnerships engaged in business in the Commonwealth. A Virginia Department of Taxation bulletin changed that treatment relating to non-unitary partnerships. In 2024, the Virginia Court of Appeals in Commonwealth v. FJ Management, Inc.
I Lost 50 Pounds Due to Menu Changes at My Prison
This drawing represents actual food trays served at my prison, where menus are rarely followed and portions are small. In 2022, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made changes to the menu with the goal of providing healthier meals to prisoners. Since then, I have gone from 230 pounds to 173. At first I was happy about my weight loss. But I began feeling hungry all the time. The food served in prison is not very good.
Indianapolis shouldn't bring in MLS if it means a bad stadium deal Original
IndyStar reported that the proposal to build a new soccer stadium in downtown Indianapolis will include a “skin in the game” provision for the as-yet-unnamed MLS ownership group to fund 20% of the stadium cost. This is where the devil will surely be in the details, and it reminds me of how the Indianapolis Colts like to claim they contributed to the financing of Lucas Oil Stadium. In fact, the Colts' contribution, as near as anyone can tell, was a net-zero.
Should I Move My Analytics to Tableau Cloud?
Shifting workloads to software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions has been an increasing priority for organizations for years. As we build for a world facing new economic challenges and uncertainty, executives have increasingly looked to Tableau Cloud, our SaaS offering, to help them develop their own competitive advantages, easily scale, and maximize efficiency.
Massachusetts Enacts Corporate and Individual Tax Changes
On October 4, 2023, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy signed H. 4104 to enact numerous business and individual tax changes. The more significant changes include adopting single-sales-factor apportionment for all corporate taxpayers, changing the sourcing of financial institution receipts from investment and trading, and reducing the personal tax rate on short-term capital gains.
The SALT Implications of Moore v. United States
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge to the constitutionality of the repatriation tax in Internal Revenue Code Section 965, a one-time mandatory transition tax imposed on U.S. shareholders of some foreign corporations measured by the corporations’ untaxed foreign earnings. The question presented to the Court in Moore v. United States , No. 22-800, is whether the mandatory repatriation tax imposed on the deemed repatriation is constitutional.
GILTI Regs Support Foreign-Source Dividend Treatment by States Original
Most states that impose corporate income taxes provide full or partial subtractions or deductions for a U.S. shareholder’s global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) that is included in the taxpayer’s federal taxable income “starting point” under Section 951A of the Internal Revenue Code.
GILTI Regs Support Foreign-Source Dividend Treatment by States
Most states that impose corporate income taxes provide full or partial subtractions or deductions for a U.S. shareholder’s global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) that is included in the taxpayer’s federal taxable income “starting point” under Section 951A of the Internal Revenue Code.
New Jersey Enacts Comprehensive CBT Overhaul
On July 3, 2023, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed budget bill A.B. 5323, altering several aspects of the state’s corporation business tax (CBT) regime.
Connecticut’s 2024 Budget Bill Extends Corporate Surcharge, Alters PTE Tax, and Reduces Personal Rates
On June 12, 2023, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed the budget bill (H.B. 6941), which includes three notable tax provisions: (1) an extension of the corporation business tax (CBT) surcharge for three years; (2) changes to the pass-through entity (PTE) tax; and (3) a reduction in personal income tax rates. Corporation Business Tax Surcharge Extended H.B. 6941 extends the CBT surcharge from income tax years beginning before January 1, 2023, to those beginning before January 1, 2026.
Consequences of the Multistate Tax Commission’s New Interpretation of P.L. 86-272
The following article, Consequences of the MTC’s new interpretation of P.L. 86-272, originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of The Tax Adviser. Congress has largely refrained from enacting federal legislation that directly affects state tax policy. However, one such statute – known in the tax world as P.L. 86-272 – was enacted in 1959 and is still alive today.
Tennessee Works Tax Act Includes Multiple Tax Law Changes
On May 11, Tennessee enacted H.B. 323, the Tennessee Works Tax Act of 2023, which makes changes to franchise and excise taxes, sales and use taxes, and the business tax. This alert summarizes the most significant provisions and includes links to several notices issued by the Tennessee Department of Revenue (Department) explaining the legislative changes.
Maryland Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to Digital Ad Tax; Controversial Tax Remains Enforceable
In a May 9 per curiam order, the Maryland Supreme Court dismissed Comcast’s challenge that Maryland’s digital advertising tax is unconstitutional and violates the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA). The court did not address the merits of the case, instead dismissing on procedural grounds because Comcast failed to exhaust its administrative remedies before bringing the challenge in state court.
Georgia Decouples From IRC Section 174, Enacts PTE Tax Changes, and Imposes Sales Tax on Digital Goods and Services
On May 2, Gov. Brian Kemp signed S.B. 56 and H.B. 412 to update Georgia’s fixed-dated conformity to the Internal Revenue Code; decouple from IRC Section 174, which addresses the amortization of research and experimental (R&E) expenditures; expand the pass-through entity (PTE) election; and apply sales and use tax to digital goods and products.
New Book Addresses the Legal Environment of Web3
Gamma Law’s David B. Hoppe Interprets Web3’s Legal History, Future David Hoppe is one of the world’s first attorneys to recognize and specialize in the legal ramifications presented by digital innovations such as extended reality, eSports, interactive media and NFTs” — Naoko Okumoto SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, May 19, 2023/ EINPresswire.com/ -- Gamma Law Managing Partner David B.
Using immobilized metal affinity chromatography, two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to identify hepatocellular proteins with copper-binding ability - PubMed
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The non-believer’s believer
It wasn’t long after finishing high school that I knew I was going to have to make some changes. I was given the official freedom by my parents to decide how to spend my Sunday mornings. I swiftly stopped going to church. I had some friends there then and today some of them still are. It wasn’t about the people, but rather my shifting and developing belief system. At that tender age, being cool was important. Christianity was not. Independence was important, conformity to a structure was not.
Virginia Governor Signs Several Tax Bills, Including a PTE Election Update With Retroactive Effect
It has been a busy 2023 legislative session in Virginia, with a number of tax bills being enacted. This alert addresses several bills passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), including retroactive amendments to the Virginia passthrough entity (PTE) tax election. PTE Tax Election On March 27, Youngkin signed S.B. 1476 (identical to H.B. 1456).
Texas Amends Rule for Sourcing Gross Receipts From Services
On January 5, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts filed proposed amendments to 34 Tex. Admin. Code §3.591 with the Secretary of State in response to the Texas Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Sirius XM Radio Inc. v. Hegar. On March 14, it formally adopted those amendments. Background By statute, Texas applies a traditional performance-oriented sourcing method for gross receipts from sales of services for the sales factor of the Texas franchise tax apportionment formula.
Stop scorched-earth proposals in forests
In an age of unprecedented threats to the world’s forests from human activity, New Mexicans have become acquainted with the idea that woodlands inevitably grow too crowded with trees and brush, leading to destructive wildfire. Whether conveyed by mainstream environmental groups, industry publicists or scientists, this misleading picture is touted with the backing of scholarly consensus, a scientific paradigm.
Multistate Internal Revenue Code Conformity Update (2023 Q1)
Since the beginning of the year, several states that conform to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) as of a specific date – so-called fixed-date states – have enacted legislation updating their dates of conformity. This alert summarizes those developments thus far. Arizona On March 3, Arizona enacted S.B. 1171 to update its conformity to the IRC.
Washington’s New Capital Gains Tax Is Being Enforced
The 2021 Washington State Legislature enacted a new 7% excise tax on long-term capital gains, effective for sales or exchanges of capital assets on or after January 1, 2022. Although the tax is being challenged as an unconstitutional income tax under the state constitution, the Washington Supreme Court has allowed the tax to be enforced pending its decision. The first payments for the tax are due on or before April 18, 2023.
Pastor’s Corner: The Beatitudes - long live the revolution!
Both non-Christian and Christian alike, in America at least, have likely heard the famous “Beatitudes” at some point in their life. They’re the bit where Jesus starts preaching, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted…” and so on. If you haven’t encountered them before, find yourself a Bible and check out the fifth chapter of Matthew.
State and Local Income Tax Issues to Consider Before Making Your Next Tax Payment
State and local taxes represent a key and often material part of a business’s total tax liability. Many states are reporting budget surpluses, reducing tax rates and offering new credits and incentives, but states are also looking to expand taxation of the digital and internet economy.
How to Stop Alert Overload and Take Your Life Back From the Red Dot
Click click click. Click click click. You know the sound. The Slack triple-ping notification is now iconic, as much as the iPhone alarm or the OG Nokia ringtone. That Slack sound is just jarring enough to catch your attention and turn your focus from actual work. Don’t get me wrong. Slack is amazing. I use it every single day. And there’s a host of other apps I use, too — Google Calendar, Zoom, et cetera.
How to Protect Productivity by Prioritizing Safety
Recent market developments and research point to a need for more effective safety training for construction workers. Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry will need to hire 650,000 new workers in 2022 to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, new employees have high rates of workplace injuries and the lag between the hiring of an employee and their first injury declined by an average of 202 days between 2011 and 2021.
More than a million people will join the senior population over the next 10 years: Here’s how one developer is preparing to me
The CEO of Griffin Living is creating a new style of high-quality, yet affordable, assisted living communities for active seniors. Paul Griffin III, a fifth-generation member of the Griffin family homebuilding empire, has developed more than 4.5 billion in value throughout his career in real estate. In 2015, he launched Griffin Living in Calabasas, Calif., which specializes in innovative senior housing.
Business Profile: Ira Gostin of G8 Strategies
Ira Gostin began his career as photojournalist chasing ambulances. He took a picture of rioters being arrested for protesting President Reagan’s inauguration in 1981 that ran in major newspapers across the country — that’s because “I had the persistence to stick around after other reporters left,” he says.
Helping the Supply Chain Address the Onslaught of Consumer Demand
Andy Lloyd is the very busy CEO of 3PL Central, a provider of cloud-based warehouse management software built to manage third-party logistics for 1,600+ warehouses, a market that treated the pandemic as a speed bump. Third-party logistics firms manage the warehouse supply chain for clients, from receiving and inventory management to shipping, with consumer expectations making even the speediest delivery never soon enough.
Oventus Medical Is Revolutionizing the Treatment of Sleep Apnea
Studies show that between one-third and one-half of adult American men — and one-sixth of women — suffer from sleep apnea. Yet it often goes undiagnosed. Apneas are short pauses in breathing during sleep, causing the brain to awake the individual and breathe more deeply for more oxygen. There is no memory of this disruption, which can occur hundreds of times during the night.
Oventus Medical Is Revolutionizing the Treatment of Sleep Apnea
Studies show that between one-third and one-half of adult American men — and one-sixth of women — suffer from sleep apnea. Yet it often goes undiagnosed. Apneas are short pauses in breathing during sleep, causing the brain to awake the individual and breathe more deeply for more oxygen. There is no memory of this disruption, which can occur hundreds of times during the night.
Invigorating Insight
Bassem Nowyhed did not learn how manufacturers can move their products off retail shelves from the business administration degree he earned in 2011 from the University of Southern California. That did give him the equivalent of a Ph.D. in networking among the Trojan universe of alumni. “You come out of USC with friends and connections from your professors and classmates to business leaders in every field,” Nowyhed says.
Swept Away
When Manny Saxena was growing up in India in humble circumstances, he aspired to be an engineer and never dreamt he would become a CEO in Silicon Valley at 33. He would have been even more surprised to know he would be heading an old-school sanitation firm, not the latest tech startup. But to be prepared to take the helm of the company would require decades of preparation.
The Rising Phenomena of Solar Energy Hits A New Gear in California
David Madrid, one of the six founding partners of Solar Energy Partners, says the company, just established at the end of 2019, has been doing so well that it just turned down an opportunity to claim $500,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program. “There has been a revolution in recent years in how easy it is to switch from getting electricity from utilities to having it generated from solar panels,” Madrid says. “We decided to let other businesses that really needed the PPP to get that help.
The Rising Phenomena of Solar Energy Hits A New Gear in California
David Madrid, one of the six founding partners of Solar Energy Partners, says the company, just established at the end of 2019, has been doing so well that it just turned down an opportunity to claim $500,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program. “There has been a revolution in recent years in how easy it is to switch from getting electricity from utilities to having it generated from solar panels,” Madrid says. “We decided to let other businesses that really needed the PPP to get that help.
Business Profile: ACT Capital Advisors LLC
ACT Capital Advisors is considered by many experts to be “the Facebook, Google and Apple” of Mergers and Acquisitions “sell-side” services, helping business owners optimize the sale of their business for the lower mid-market or businesses with $5-100M in revenue.
Dr. Yige “Mira” Li is helping developers of lithium-battery products speed up innovation. How important is that? Experts estimate that it will take 40 years to net zero emissions.
By Scott S. Smith, California Business Journal Dr. Yige “Mira” Li was researching her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California at Riverside when she came across information about the rapid depletion of global resources. “I was shocked to realize that oil and natural gas are going to run out in 50 years,” she says. “I knew our use of these has accelerated global warming and carbon dioxide levels have nearly doubled since the 1850s.
Business Profile: The Fulfillment Lab
By Scott S. Smith, California Business Journal. One day, Rick Nelson was curious to learn more about the competition in ecommerce global shipping. He quickly realized there was “a lot of low-hanging fruit in the third-party logistics industry,” he says. He convinced his wife Natalie that it was a viable space to invest in. Yet they did more than that: They founded The Fulfillment Lab in 2012 to provide more creative ecommerce global shipping. Since Day 1, it has been profitable.
Why your business needs to understand the future
Think about where your business stood five years ago—sometime in late 2015. Economists weren’t exactly crowing, but global and regional economic forecasts indicated moderate growth ahead, or possibly slowing. Coming out of the Great Recession at the end of the 2010s, the US, UK, and the world were coasting on several years of recovery and expansion. All in all, 2015 was a textbook year of general stability in a world steered by affluent nations. There were few caution signs flashing.
In Focus: FocusLawLA
There are times when Tony Liu of FocusLawLA feels more like a marriage counselor than a litigation attorney. He says a business dispute, when you peel back the layers, is more like a bad divorce than a purely legal matter. His first job is to calm down the client, so that the goals and how to best get there can be thought about clearly. Disputes can escalate to the point where businesses or even personal finances are at stake.
Venezuelan Rum Distillery Takes on Coronavirus
The Santa Teresa distillery in Venezuela has lifted spirits for generations with its amber-red rum, famous around the world for being slowly sipped over ice or mixed into cocktails like the Cuba Libre. Now, the company has turned its steel vats and steaming distillation towers on a colonial-era hacienda covered by palms and sugarcane fields in Venezuela's countryside to fight the new coronavirus. Most of its rum production has given way to filling bottles of antiseptic alcohol.
Venezuelan Rum Distillery Takes on Coronavirus
The Santa Teresa distillery in Venezuela has lifted spirits for generations with its amber-red rum, famous around the world for being slowly sipped over ice or mixed into cocktails like the Cuba Libre. Now, the company has turned its steel vats and steaming distillation towers on a colonial-era hacienda covered by palms and sugarcane fields in Venezuela's countryside to fight the new coronavirus. Most of its rum production has given way to filling bottles of antiseptic alcohol.
GrafTech: Great Business And Excellent Acquisition Candidate
GrafTech International Ltd. (EAF) is a business that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger could love. It meets the acquisition criteria that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) desires and has similarities to many of Berkshire’s existing family of manufacturing businesses, such as Lubrizol, International Metalworking, Marmon, and Precision Castparts. It could also be an ideal acquisition candidate for strategic manufacturing companies already in the raw material space.
Why Are Progressive Christians Attracted to Universalism?
Former emergents (namely, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, and Rob Bell) argue that everyone has a particular standpoint from which they come to interpret and know the world. Moreover, we are shaped, or “situated,” so deeply by our cultural and familial upbringing, life experiences, historical location, and more that we cannot gain a universal, unbiased viewpoint and know reality as it truly is, even about the truth of Christianity.
Olympics costings show it would be a winner
IN THE four years I’ve been working alongside the region’s mayors to investigate a southeast Queensland Olympic Games, I find most people tend to fit into two groups. There’s those who love the Olympics, and those that are convinced it’s a complete waste of money.
Some Frequently Asked Questions
Self-directed IRAs may sound intimidating, but if they’re properly understood and managed, they offer great freedom. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about self-directed IRAs. Let’s begin with the basics. What is a self-directed IRA? A self-directed IRA account is an IRA that isn’t limited in terms of investment: funds in these accounts may be invested literally anywhere that is allowed by U.S. law.
Changing the State and Local Tax Nexus Playing Fields
One of the major state and local tax developments that CPAs have been dealing with is the Supreme Court’s decision on June 21, 2018, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 585 U.S. ___ (2018), and the sales tax economic nexus implications related to it.
Wednesday Noon ~ thefrontpagecover
Liberal Professor To Students: ‘Oxford Professor proclaims-> Aliens Are Interbreeding With Humans Because Of Climate Change Oxford Professor Dr. Yun-hae Chi believes there is a strong correlation between climate change and alien abductions. He has been pushing this theory for several years now. This is the type of lunacy they are pushing on today’s youth.
Marketing Your HVAC Company Doesn’t Have to Be So Complicated
There are few truths in an uncertain world, but here is one of them: Without leads, your business will go under. No exceptions. This fact is why I, and many other marketing professionals, have a job today. Gone are the days of throwing your name into the phone book of choice in your area, putting your number on the side of a truck, and watching the phones light up. In today’s ever-evolving world, the complexity of marketing seems to grow every day.
Berkshire Hathaway Is Well Positioned For The Post-Buffett/Munger Era
As a long time Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B, or collectively BRK) shareholder who made the pilgrimage to Omaha 4 years ago to see and hear the Oracle(s), I put my BRK shares in buckets called Hold Forever and Don’t Need To Follow Too Closely. I was reminded when reading the 2018 Annual Report that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are 88 and 95, respectively. Their gene pool for memory, cognitive skills and good health are exceptional by any measure.
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