Find a state/local tax policy organization (e.g., the Committee on State Taxation). Read its current newsletter. In an e mail to your instructor, summarize a major article in the newsletter. Look especially for articles on one of these topics:
• Judicial and legislative developments concerning the income taxation of intangible income (e.g., trademark royalties).
• Legislation applying a physical presence test as the exclusive definition of nexus at the Federal level or for your state’s sales/use tax.
• Responses by the states to the economic downturn (e.g., more aggressive enforcement, new taxes and fees, and installment options for the late payment of taxes and penalties).
• Development of nexus rules that apply to cloud computing services.
• The positive or negative “business tax climate” of your state and its neighbors, as measured by two or more policy centers or think tanks, and any measurable trends in the climate over the last 20 years.
• Attempts by the legislatures of your state and its neighbors to add advertising services to the sales/use tax base.
• Limitations on the taxpayer’s ability to carry back net operating losses in computing your state’s corporate taxable income.