GEO Group Asks Texas Justices for $4 Million Tax Refund

GEO Group Inc. told the Texas Supreme Court that it’s entitled to nearly $4 million in sales tax refunds because it’s an instrumentality of the government.

The lower court misinterpreted the definition of ‘instrumentality’ under Comptroller Rule Section 3.322, which exempts certain entities from sales tax, the company told the Texas Justices. The appeals court misconstrued the term to exclusively refer to a “branch of a governing body,” but that’s just one example of the dictionary definition of the word, GEO said.

GEO Group performed the “quintessential” governmental function of incarceration for the federal and state governments, so it’s ...