RYNARD ATTENDS ABA/IPT ADVANCED TAX SEMINAR

Attorney Tom Rynard attended the five-day Advanced Tax Seminars program presented jointly by the American Bar Association Tax Section and the Institute for Professionals in Taxation.  The program focused on evolving issues in State and Local Taxation, with emphasis in sales and use tax of internet sales by merchants (remote sellers) and marketplace facilitators (such as Amazon and Etsy).  Although Missouri is only one of two states that has not enacted legislation allowing states to require remote sellers and marketplace facilitators to collect use tax following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 138 S.Ct. 2080 (2018), such a bill is pending in the Legislature this session.  It is very likely that Missouri will pass some version of an internet sales use tax statute that will go into effect late this summer.  The multiple ABA/IPT seminar sessions provided detailed insight into the legal and practical issues that will arise in Missouri once Wayfair legislation becomes effective.

In addition to sessions on use taxes under Wayfair, Rynard attended sales tax sessions on taxation of digital services and goods, taxation of complementary goods and services and rewards programs, and sales tax audits in litigation; property tax sessions on hot topics in the area, such as advanced income approach to value applications and emerging law on the proper legal interest being valued (fee simple interest versus leased fee interest); and general sessions on litigating tax disputes.

Tom regularly practices in the area of state sales and property tax.  In the sales tax area, he generally represents commercial businesses that have been audited by the Department of Revenue with a resulting assessment of taxes levied.  In the property tax area, he represents owners and county assessors on commercial property tax valuation and exemption appeals before the county assessor, the local Board of Equalization and the State Tax Commission.  Tom was formerly Chief Hearing Officer with the Missouri State Tax Commission.  He is a member of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation.

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