AT&T Beats Bulk of Missouri Cities’ Business License Tax Appeal

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. mostly convinced a Missouri appeals court that it correctly calculated its business tax base under the terms of a class action settlement it reached with over 300 cities in 2007.

But the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, ruled Tuesday that the company’s prepaid wireless services are within the agreement’s purview and granted summary judgment in favor of the cities as to that issue.

“The trial court missed the mark” on the prepaid issue “in several ways,” Judge James M. Dowd wrote for the court. The agreement’s language is “simple and straightforward enough and indicates in ...