Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-30-2011

Publication Title

State Tax Notes

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

St. Tax Notes

Volume

60

First Page

665

Last Page

668

Abstract

This installment closes a loop begun in the last installment of this column. We have been exploring the degrees of deference accorded by the courts to interpretations and positions taken by state and local revenue agencies. The last installment examined conditional deference doctrines, that is, deference specific to particular situations or conditioned on the existence of particular conditions. That installment noted one line of conditional deference, applying to cases in which agencies are interpreting their own regulations. This is often called Auer deference, after one of the most prominent cases of the line. Because of the richness of the Auer line of cases, we deferred exploration of it to this installment.

Part I below describes Auer deference generally, considering both federal and state cases. Part II evaluates the rationales for the doctrine and the criticisms that have been leveled at it. In state and local tax cases, Auer deference will almost always be asserted by the government revenue authority. Thus Part III identifies arguments by which taxpayers may attempt to defuse assertions of Auer deference.

Rights

© 2011 Steve R. Johnson

Comments

First published in State Tax Notes.

Faculty Biography

http://www.law.fsu.edu/our-faculty/profiles/johnson

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