Smithfield Cements Win on California Income Tax Treatment

A California trial court is standing by its decision that Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. qualifies as an agricultural business permitted to use a special formula to calculate what portion of its income is taxable in the state.

The California Superior Court for Los Angeles County rejected the Franchise Tax Board’s 38 objections to what it called “omissions and ambiguities” in the court’s February proposed ruling, in an opinion posted late Tuesday that made few substantive changes. In a separate order, Judge Gary D. Roberts said the objections were largely “improper attempts to reargue the matter” or force the ...