California Court Throws Out Underground Tax Regulations in Big Win For ACMA

The ACMA has won a hard-earned victory in its litigation against the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB). Siding with the ACMA, the California Superior Court ruled that the FTB went too far in dressing up substantive regulations as mere “guidance.”

On December 13th, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman issued a carefully reasoned order granting the ACMA’s motion for summary adjudication, concluding that two guidance documents published by the FTB in 2022, Technical Advice Memorandum 2022–01 and FTB Publication 1050, are void as invalid “underground regulations.”

FTB Exceeded Its Regulatory Authority
These FTB documents purported to instruct out-of-state retailers what online activities were and were not protected by federal law (Public Law 86–272),

In simply publishing the publications on the FTB’s website, the court concluded that the FTB exceeded its regulatory authority by not complying with the California statute governing how agencies must issue regulations.
more at: https://catalogmailers.org/big-win-for-acma-its-members-california-court-throws-out-underground-tax-regulations/