Fifth Avenue Forum

Yeah. My best friend from law school (who passed the bar in Texas this week, huzzah!) is a diploma privilege advocate and is using this incident in her crusade for abolishment. We've been fighting about it via text all day. I think there is needed reform in the bar exam process but I don't agree with full abolishment.

It's not often that original-jurisdiction SCOTUS cases could have a major national impact, but we might have one in New Hampshire v. Massachusetts, which deals with interstate taxation. Tens of thousands of New Hampshire residents work in Massachusetts, and they pay Massachusetts income tax for work physically done in Massachusetts. That is the standard rule for income taxation: you owe income tax to a state for work you do in that state. Due to Covid, many of those New Hampshire residents are now teleworking from home. Massachusetts in April 2020 passed a rule that said that "compensation received for personal services performed by a nonresident who, immediately prior to the Massachusetts COVID-19 state of emergency, was an employee engaged in performing such services in Massachusetts, and who, during such emergency, is performing such services from a location outside Massachusetts due solely to the Massachusetts COVID-19 state of emergency, will continue to be treated as Massachusetts source income subject to personal income tax..." In other words, Massachusetts is taking the position that work done by New Hampshire residents from their homes in New Hampshire can be subject to Massachusetts income tax merely because those people might otherwise be working from their offices in Massachusetts.

This could have some significant implications on taxation for telework. If upheld, it's not hard to imagine that states would try to extend this rule beyond a COVID-19 state of emergency and attempt to impose income tax on teleworkers in other states. For example, someone who works 100% remotely from his Idaho home for a California company might very well have California come knocking for California income tax because that person works for a California company.

https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/u ... Action.pdf

how would that work for companies that have offices in multiple states?

for example, Microsoft has an office in Charlotte. I’m assuming if you worked at the Charlotte office you’d be taxed only by NC but what if you were a full time remote employee in NC?

Not sure. Right now, the issue is still at the "Can Massachusetts do this?" level, and I certainly hope that SCOTUS says "no."

Not directly related, but if you want an example of multi-state offices, look at how professional athletes are taxed.

Without having read the facts other than your summary, Shyster, I would agree the common sense answer seems to be "do not do this".

for those that study(ied) law, what’s the most intriguing case you’ve studied?

Case? Not sure. The family law casebook was the most interesting by far. Really terrible, nutty, tragic stuff in there.

Examples?

"Intriguing" in what sense? Outrageous? Silly?

I've read probably thousands of judicial opinions at this point. I can barely remember all of the cases I've actually litigated, let alone the cases I've just read or cited.

My own most outrageous case was an insurance dispute. A nonprofit medical clinic that treats people with a certain disease had a patient that clearly and undoubtedly medically needed a staggeringly expensive drug. The total cost was well over a million dollars. The clinic called the insurer to make sure they knew about the charge, and the insurer approved and knew exactly the magnitude of the claim they were going to be getting. When it came time to fill out the claim form, the dollar amount of the expense was literally too big to fit in the boxes on the form; the last zero didn't fit, so it was left hanging outside. Instead of paying, say, $1 million, the insurer ignored the last zero and paid $100,000. And when confronted about it, they argued that there was "one bite at the apple" to fill out the form and they didn't have to pay anything more, even though (1) they had been told about the full amount of the charge; (2) the full amount of the charge was on the form; and (3) it was their own damn form that didn't have enough boxes for an amount over $1 million. We had to sue them to get them to pay up.

That case is one of the main reasons I despise insurance companies. They literally tried to screw a nonprofit health clinic out of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the basis of something that their own form caused.

Anyone have experience in small claims court? Trying to decide if it’s with the time and effort (and about $100 filing fee) to get $1300 in rent I’m owed.

Anyone have experience in small claims court? Trying to decide if it’s with the time and effort (and about $100 filing fee) to get $1300 in rent I’m owed.

All I know is that the covid relief passed makes it pretty tough to collect these days

Anyone have experience in small claims court? Trying to decide if it’s with the time and effort (and about $100 filing fee) to get $1300 in rent I’m owed.

Will it take more than, say, 25-30 hours of your time to see this through to completion? (Meaning collection)

I'd move on and take the loss.

imo

Is the person collectible? If you're awarded a judgement would you ultimately be able to collect it? If not, why bother?

The eviction moratoria alluded to by ulf might complicate things. People can still be evicted, but some courts don't understand the nuance of the policies and refuse to hear any kind of eviction action, including claims for back rent. It would suck to put down $100 and be told to pound sand. If I were a savvy defendant I'd motion to have it removed to district court where it likely wouldn't be heard, and your cost of entry goes up.

Now, small claims court is designed specifically for non-sophisticated litigants so they might cut you some slack.

I have no idea how much of mine time this will take. I haven't really looked into the process. My property manager said they'd help out, but not sure what that really means.

In terms of collection... no idea. They're moved out, and didn't leave a forwarding address.

I'm probably going to end just taking the loss. I'll get the security deposit, and if I end up selling the house, which is the plan, I won't need to use the security deposit for repairs as it will be sold as-is. But there's also the principle of the matter that will get to me. They didn't pay rent, and they trashed the house.

I only chime in because I have a client who owns a residential apartment building downtown and wrote off every former resident balance at 12/31 because they don't think they'll get anything close to what's owed. But I don't know a whole lot on it

Audits involving rentals and the new revenue recognition and how it ties into COVID is going to be a fun time for everyone, and by fun I mean a migraine.

^^^^^^^^ Jury duty!

Zoom?

Audits involving rentals and the new revenue recognition and how it ties into COVID is going to be a fun time for everyone, and by fun I mean a migraine.

another accountant here? didn't know this. aren't rentals scoped out of rev rec?

Zoom?

Don't know yet, but the summons has a map on it, so.....

We just moved into the Red tier of restrictions, so more in-person stuff is opening up. Service doesn't start until April 5, so it's actually possible we'll have upgraded to Orange by then.

Audits involving rentals and the new revenue recognition and how it ties into COVID is going to be a fun time for everyone, and by fun I mean a migraine.

another accountant here? didn't know this. aren't rentals scoped out of rev rec?

Yep - 11 years and counting.

Appears that way. I went from public accounting to working at a hospital so I don't keep up with things outside of that scope as much. It wasn't too bad for us as it wasn't a big jump to align with the new standards. I just assumed it was and looks like I'm wrong.

That being said, audits involving rentals and COVID will still be a fun time. Not as much fun as it could have been, but fun.

Audits involving rentals and the new revenue recognition and how it ties into COVID is going to be a fun time for everyone, and by fun I mean a migraine.

another accountant here? didn't know this. aren't rentals scoped out of rev rec?

Yep - 11 years and counting.

Appears that way. I went from public accounting to working at a hospital so I don't keep up with things outside of that scope as much. It wasn't too bad for us as it wasn't a big jump to align with the new standards. I just assumed it was and looks like I'm wrong.

That being said, audits involving rentals and COVID will still be a fun time. Not as much fun as it could have been, but fun.

lol well glad you don't have to deal with the rev rec portion of it

^^^^^^^^ Jury duty!

I got called in March 2020 for federal jury duty right before everything shut down. Canceled, and I've not been contacted about it since.

This is the first summons I've gotten since maybe 2002. I actually want to do it, I think it's an important part of civic engagement.