Episode 45

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Published on:

16th Mar 2022

Litigating SALT Cases with Leah Robinson (Part 2)

In the second episode of a two-part series, we continue our conversation with Leah Robinson, an attorney and state and local tax partner with Mayer Brown in New York. Leah continues to discuss some of the most interesting tax cases she has litigated, her thoughts on what could be deemed government overreach, and where she has seen some recent state auditor “gotchas” that we should all be aware of.

 


Questions asked and answered in this Episode:


  • How Leah approaches each case


  • After being at the IRS and then representing clients against the state, how does she feel about the mentality with the IRS and the state?


  •  Where she sees government overreach beyond what is allowable under the constitution

 


What You Will Discover:


  • [00:24] How Leah decides how to approach each case


  • [02:38] The mentality between the IRS vs the state


  • [06:24] Looking how a product functions from a tech point of view


  • [10:27] Examples of overreach


  • [15:09] Where she sees government overreach


  • [28:06] An interesting thing about the compliance effort

 


Quotables:


 


  • “There definitely are cases where we want an answer. We need the answer, and if we can have a settlement that also gives us a going forward answer, fine, but you can’t always get that.”- Leah Robinson [01:57]


  • “And I get it. The business folks in a company want to describe themselves a certain way. They want to appeal to their client base, but that doesn’t mean that that’s what the technology really is doing.”- Leah Robinson [06:45]


  • “I think post-Wayfair, there’s been an assumption that economic nexus is the end of the story.”- Leah Robinson [15:45]


  • “I still think physical presence is an easier standard, and cookies, even though they are intangibles, they still take up space, right? My hard drive has a limited amount of space. So even things that are intangible like software, they still take up space on the server, on a hard drive, etc.”- Leah Robinson [25:35]


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Production Support

This episode was produced with support from Truth Work Media. www.truthworkmedia.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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About the Podcast

SALTovation: Making Sense of State and Local Tax
Welcome to SALTovation. The SALTovation show is a podcast series featuring the leading voices in state and local tax (SALT). Here we talk about issues, strategies, and planning tools to help you make sense of SALT. Because, in SALT, there is no “one and done.” SALT is a puzzle of ever-changing pieces. Solving that puzzle is our business at SALTovation. Tens of thousands of listeners know they won't get tax talk as usual with the SALTovation team. Our team is known for straight-talk with a flair for fun, providing clarity and opinions that move businesses forward with confidence.

Attorney, CPA, speaker, and writer Judy Vorndran leads the SALTovation team as they go inside business to help deal with the daily operations and long-term strategies of making SALT less “taxing.” Judy has spent more than 25 years advocating for businesses with innovative strategies, renowned knowledge and experience. She has helped guide thousands of taxpayers across the nation and globally through the morass of SALT, freeing them to concentrate on growth. Joining Judy are the wickedly smart members of the SALTovation team, who have seen, worked with and tamed some of the most prickly issues in SALT. They enjoy sharing their stories and knowledge with listeners.

Solving the SALT puzzle doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it takes a community. So, we invite leaders in business and state and local tax to share their stories, challenges and successes on this show. Drop us a line at SALTovation.com if you'd like to join the conversation and tune into our regular series at TaxOps.com.