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December 20, 2019
State and Local Tax
This Week
Illinois General Assembly
The House and Senate will return to Springfield for the beginning of the spring legislative session on January 28.
We are putting together the Tax Institute legislative initiatives for the spring 2020 legislative session. Please contact me with suggestions for legislation.
New legislation
HB 4004 (Mayfield) - Amends the Property Tax Code. With respect to the homestead exemption for persons with disabilities, provides that the property is exempt from taxation if the person with a disability is 55 years of age or older at any point during the taxable year.
Property Tax Relief Task Force
The Task Force missed its preliminary report deadline. The final report of the Task Force is due to be submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly on December 31.
The Assessments and Exemptions subcommittee continues to meet. Last Friday, the subcommittee took testimony from
3 property tax attorneys, including Whitney Carlisle of Tax Institute member law firm O'Keefe Lyons & Hynes, LLC.
The Assessments and Exemptions subcommittee is scheduled to meet again this afternoon.
Rulemaking
The December 20 edition of the Illinois Register did not contain any proposed rulemaking by the Illinois Department of Revenue or the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The Department of Revenue adopted amended rules for administrative hearings before the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Court cases
The Illinois Supreme Court issued its opinion in Iwan Ries & Co. et al. v. The City of Chicago. The case was a challenge to a 2016 ordinance of the City of Chicago that imposed a municipal tax on "other tobacco products" (cigars, pipe tobacco, etc.) purchased in the City of Chicago.
The plaintiffs contended that the City's ordinance was preempted by Section 8-11-6a of the Illinois Municipal Code which places limits on the authority of home rule units to impose certain taxes, including cigarette taxes and other tobacco products taxes.
The circuit court of Cook County ruled that the City of Chicago was preempted from imposing the tax. The appellate court reversed the circuit court. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and affirmed the judgment of the circuit court.
One of the plaintiffs is this case is Illinois Chamber Tax Institute member company Arangold. The plaintiffs were represented by Stan Kaminski of Illinois Chamber Tax Institute member law firm Duane Morris.
The appellate court issued issued a decision in Shakman v. Department of Revenue. This case deals with the Aircraft Use Tax Law. Shakman bought an aircraft in 2008 and paid Use tax on the purchase. Later, Shakman changed the legal ownership of the aircraft to himself as trustee of his revocable trust. When the Illinois Department became aware of the filing of the bill of sale with the FAA, it assessed aircraft use tax based on the estimated value of the aircraft.
Shakman challenged the assessment in circuit court under the Protest Monies Act. The court ruled for the Department on cross-motions for summary judgment by the parties. Shakman appealed to the appellate court and appellate court, after reviewing the language of the Aircraft Use Tax Law upheld the circuit court.
Tribunal
No new decisions were posted this week.
None of the new cases filed with the Tribunal raise unique issues.
Publications
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) issued a report on Monday entitled
Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law. The report is the usual contentions from ITEP that corporations are not paying their "fair share" of taxes. Unfortunately, reports such as these receive serious attention from members of the media and many members of the Illinois General Assembly. As a result, the report should be reviewed in detail to debunk the conclusions of the report.
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