Sunoco Was Properly Denied NY Franchise Tax Refund, Judge Rules

A Sunoco subsidiary failed to convince a New York administrative law judge that it’s entitled to a corporation franchise tax refund of more than $2.6 million.

The state challenged the way Sunoco treated “buy/sell transactions” where it would buy oil from another oil company to fulfill a customer order because the other company’s oil was closer to the customer, to reduce transportation costs. In exchange, Sunoco would sell the same amount of oil to the other oil company in a different location.

New York Division of Tax Appeals Administrative Law Judge Jessica DiFiore agreed with the state that these transactions ...