Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-8-2010

Publication Title

State Tax Notes

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

St. Tax Notes

Volume

55

First Page

711

Last Page

714

Abstract

Vast is the garden of state and local taxation, and exotic are some of the blossoms to be found there. This installment of Interpretation Matters will consider one of those curious blooms: use of the civil RICO statute directly or collaterally in state-local tax administration. The U.S. Supreme Court has addressed the state-local tax implications of civil RICO three times in recent years: in the Anza case in 2006, Bridge in 2008, and Hemi, decided on January 25, 2010.

The first section below sketches civil actions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The next three sections describe Anza, Bridge, and Hemi respectively. In Anza and Hemi, the civil RICO claims failed. In Bridge, they succeeded. The fifth section assesses whether, in light of the three decisions, any room remains for asserting civil RICO in future controversies arising from state or local taxes. It concludes that some such room likely does exist. A future installment of the column will explore other policy issues raised by these three cases, especially by Hemi.

Rights

© 2010 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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