Arizona contractor denied land-value deduction.

In a recent decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals, a prime contractor was denied its challenge of an auditor’s reduction of the original assessed land-value deduction towards the contractor’s sales and use tax liability. The contractor’s business is the building of condominiums to sell as residential units. The taxpayer failed to argue a plausible case against the auditor’s readjusted assessment. In fact, the taxpayer focused his dispute on the belief that it was illegal for the Department or Revenue to change its original approval of deductions. The Department of Revenue argued that the assessment was an ongoing process and was finalized with the changes after requesting certain documentation from the taxpayer and failing to get a response. (Arizona Joint Venture v. Arizona Department of Revenue, Arizona Court of Appeals, Div. One, No. 1 CA-TX 02-0010, February 24, 2003)

Posted on April 15, 2003