Welcome to the latest Reed Smith Massachusetts State Tax
Quarterly Update. In this update, we'll look at the most recent
developments in Massachusetts corporate tax, provide some
administrative updates, and discuss some hot topics for the second
half of 2015.
Corporate Tax
The Appellate Tax Board decides two more "true
debt" cases – MassMutual wins; Staples
loses
Mass Mutual – The ATB treats intercompany notes as
bona fide debt producing deductible interest.
In a major taxpayer victory, the Appellate Tax Board
("ATB") has put the brakes on the Department's
efforts to continue to further expand its authority to deny
interest deductions on intercompany obligations using a "true
debt" analysis. On June 12, 2015, the ATB issued its findings
of fact and report in the related cases of Massachusetts Mutual
Life Insurance Company and MassMutual Holding LLC v. Commissioner
and MML Investor Services, Inc. v. Commissioner1,
in which the ATB held that intercompany
