The Pennsylvania Board of Finance and Revenue recently published a decision regarding the sourcing of receipts and property of a satellite television provider. The Board held that the taxpayer’s receipts from sales of satellite television services were properly included in the taxpayer’s Pennsylvania numerator based on the location of subscribers in the state. The Board held that the taxpayer failed to meet its burden of proof to show that a greater portion of its income-producing activities occurred outside the state under Pennsylvania’s cost of performance sourcing rules applicable to the tax year at issue. Pennsylvania sourcing rules changed for tax years beginning after December 31, 2013 to require market-based sourcing for sales of services. The Board also upheld the inclusion of orbiting satellites in the Pennsylvania property factor numerator. On audit, the taxpayer’s property numerator was increased to include a percentage of the satellite values as shown on the taxpayer’s federal return, based on the percentage of subscription fees from Pennsylvania customers to subscription fees everywhere. The Board upheld this adjustment to the property factor, which noted that the satellites were owned by the taxpayer and used in the state to provide satellite television service. In re Dish DBS Corporation , Docket No. 1713444 (Pa. Bd. Fin. & Revenue May 14, 2018). See our previous coverage of a similar South Carolina decision involving this taxpayer. In re Dish DBS Corporation , Docket No. 1713444 (Pa. Bd. Fin. & Revenue May 14, 2018).

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SANTA ANA, Calif. - A patient at an emergency medical care facility on Oct. 9 filed a class action against its owner in a California court, asserting that the owner's billing practices violate California's unfair competition law (UCL) and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) (Joshua Yebba v. AHMC Healthcare Inc., No. 2018-01024090, Calif. Super., Orange Co.).

MIAMI - Two longtime airline pilots can testify as experts for a couple suing Spain's flag carrier airline for injuries suffered during severe turbulence, though they cannot offer opinions about the flight crew's state of mind, a Florida federal magistrate judge held Oct. 11 (Fanny Quevedo, et al. v. Iberia, Lineas Aereas de Espana, S.A. Operadora Unipersonal, No. 17-21168, S.D. Fla., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174771).

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $65 million and launch a "Seating Pilot Program," which will provide seating to its cashiers, to end more than nine years of litigation over the retailer's failure to provide seats, according to a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement filed Oct. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Nisha Brown, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al., No. 09-3339, N.D. Calif.).

CHICAGO - An Illinois college's decision to no longer hire retired state employees who were collecting annuities based on a change in law that imposed a penalty on covered employers did not constitute age discrimination or retaliation because the reason for the decision was one not based on age, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Oct. 11 (Barry Dayton v. Oakton Community College, et al., No. 18-1668, 7th Cir., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 28674).

GAP v. DHS - "FOIA requests are not a game of Battleship. The requester should not have to score a direct hit on the records sought based on the precise phrasing of his request. Rather, the agency must liberally interpret the request and frame its search accordingly. Guided by Summers and Bagwell, the Court concludes that DHS neither liberally construed GAP’s request, Nation Magazine, 71 F.3d at 890, nor conducted a search reasonably likely to produce all responsive records, Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, 641 F.3d at 514. Therefore, it will order DHS to conduct an additional search of its records."

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