Amy Hamilton (Tax Notes): MTC Fights Federal Intervention in Hawaii Cruise Ship Tax Case

The Multistate Tax Commission is urging the Ninth Circuit to reject the U.S. Justice Department’s intervention in a Hawaii tax dispute as improper overreach that could let the federal government sidestep the Tax Injunction Act.

In a February 25 amicus brief in Cruise Lines International Association Inc. v. Suganuma, the MTC sharply opposed what it called the Justice Department’s unprecedented eleventh-hour intervention in the case.

The MTC argued that this rare federal intrusion in a dispute in which the federal government is not the taxpayer could open the door to the United States routinely bypassing the TIA and federalizing state taxation.