Massachusetts Capital Gains Ruling Offers States a Path (1)

A Massachusetts high court ruling addressing whether the state can tax an out-of-state company’s capital gains on the sale of an in-state company could lead other states to adopt its approach.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ultimately barred the state from taxing Florida company VAS Holdings & Investments LLC for the financial benefit it gained from selling its 50% ownership interest in in-state company Cloud5 LLC, in a decision Monday. But arguably the broader impact is the court’s observation that the state has constitutional authority to tax the gains VAS made on the in-state company, which had benefited from the ...