State & Local

Expert Analysis

• ​Boardroom Lessons From Shareholders' Diversity Lawsuits

  

  Corporate efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace are gaining momentum, and shareholder derivative lawsuits offer important lessons on how boards may protect themselves while fostering diverse workforces and safeguarding company goodwill, say attorneys at Covington.

• Mass. Bills Will Have Broad Impact On Cannabis Industry

  

  Legislation recently passed by both chambers of the Massachusetts Legislature will make sweeping changes to the commonwealth’s cannabis industry, altering everything from municipal agreements to on-site consumption, and improving social equity while reducing businesses' tax burdens, says Cloe Pippin at Foley Hoag.

• Critiques Of NY Tax Whistleblower Bill Are Untenable

  

  Amending the New York False Claims Act to allow whistleblower actions against those who fail to file tax returns will combat invisible fraud and return stolen revenue to the state, and recent objections that the pending bill to do this would dangerously expand the act do not pass muster, say Neil Getnick and Courtney Finerty-Stelzner at Getnick & Getnick.

• Ohio Tax Talk: Unpacking The New Property Tax Procedures

  

  New procedures for challenging real property tax valuations in Ohio may reduce tax revenue for political subdivisions and school districts, but are also likely to help boost development in the state and streamline its real estate tax, say Yazan Ashrawi and Raghav Agnihotri at Frost Brown.

• Calif. Supermajority Ruling May Change Local Tax Landscape

  

  The California Supreme Court's 2017 decision in California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland, which provided an easy path to pass special taxes while avoiding the Constitution's supermajority voting requirements, may lead to a rise in taxes that benefit specific populations, as more special tax initiatives are introduced at a local level, say Timothy Gustafson and John Ormonde at Eversheds Sutherland.

• Kentucky Tax Talk: Unpacking The 2022 Legislative Session

  

  Individual Kentuckians will feel the changes made this legislative session as cuts to state income tax increase their net pay, while new sales taxes make many purchases more expensive, a change unlikely to help or hurt most Kentucky businesses, say attorneys at Frost Brown.

• Crypto Investors May Face Increasing State FCA Tax Liability

  

  Cryptocurrency investors who fail to report the state tax consequences of transactions are poised to encounter increased civil or criminal legal exposure as a growing number of states bring tax fraud under the purview of their whistleblower statutes, say attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt.

• What Ohio Tax Bill Would Mean For Business Sales

  

  A pending Ohio bill would codify two situations in which selling an equity or ownership interest in a business would be considered business income, clarifying a number of ambiguous tax situations, say attorneys at Taft.

• Mich. Marijuana Bill Could Boost Tribal Economic Growth

  

  New legislation in Michigan could help Native American tribes raise revenue for government services by creating a pathway for their marijuana businesses to interact with state-licensed facilities — a cooperative approach that supports tribal sovereignty and provides a model for resolving related jurisdictional challenges, says Paul Mooney at Dykema.

• The Efficacy Of Real Estate Joint Venture Exit Strategies

  

  The pandemic has highlighted the importance of negotiating exit strategies for joint ventures, but more may not be better — parties should carefully assess which options are best suited to the particular venture, factoring in certain helpful considerations, say Kris Ferranti and Jonathan Newman at Shearman.

• NY Tribunal Ruling Instructive On Sales Taxation Of Artwork

  

  A recent ruling from the New York Tax Appeals Tribunal in a case involving purchase of a Picasso painting sheds light on two important tax-structuring issues in the art industry — the form-over-substance nature of sales tax and the proper analysis to determine whether property is purchased exclusively for resale, say Joseph Endres and Joshua Lawrence at Hodgson Russ.

• Justices Must Apply Law Evenly In Shadow Docket Rulings

  

  In recent shadow docket decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has inconsistently applied the requirement that parties demonstrate irreparable harm to obtain injunctive relief, which is problematic for two separate but related reasons, says David Hopkins at Benesch.

• Federal Cannabis Bill Needs A Regulatory Plan To Succeed

  

  The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, is laudable but fundamentally flawed because it lacks a robust regulatory plan that would allow for bipartisan support, says Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie.