Verizon Denied $22 Million Tax Refund at Rhode Island High Court

Verizon New England Inc. won’t get a $22 million refund of personal property taxes after the Rhode Island Supreme Court on Thursday rejected its understanding of accumulated depreciation.

“It is clear that the term ‘accumulated depreciation’ is unambiguous,” Justice Erin Lynch Prata wrote for the unanimous court. The plain and ordinary meaning of the term in the tax statute reefers to financial accounting depreciation, which doesn’t include consideration of market contingencies, she said.

Verizon argued the state should take into account changes in the telecommunications industry during the 2000s that caused the value of its property to decline rapidly. The ...