The Gillette Company v. California Franchise Tax Board

Case Updates

Joined by the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari that seeks review of a California Supreme Court decision concerning the enforceability of the Multistate Tax Compact. Specifically, the petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the California high court’s ruling that the Compact is simply not binding on the states that signed it.

In the brief, the Chamber explained that the binding nature of the Compact has long provided American businesses with predictable and uniform taxation rules that they rely upon when making significant business decisions, such as where to build a manufacturing plant or expand their sales operations. Not only does the California Supreme Court’s decision undermine this long-established predictability, but allowing California to partially withdraw from the Compact, despite its express provision that states may only repeal the agreement in its entirety, undermines one of the main purposes of the Compact: preventing the need for federal legislation on the taxation of interstate businesses.

Frederick Liu of Hogan Lovells served as co-counsel for the amici.