Comerica Wins Michigan High Court Tax Credit Transfer Dispute

Tax credits that a Comerica, Inc. subsidiary earned doing brownfield cleanup and redevelopment were transferable to another bank subsidiary in a merger, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The dispute centered on whether more than $3 million in various tax credits held by a Michigan Comerica subsidiary were lost when that entity was merged into a new Texas Comerica subsidiary in 2007. The Michigan Tax Tribunal ruled in 2018 that state law forbids multiple assignments of credits, so the Texas subsidiary couldn’t use credits given to the Michigan unit.

The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed this decision, and the ...