Dallas, Texas – Ryan, a leading global tax services firm with the largest indirect and property tax practices in North America, today announced that the Firm has filed suit challenging the legality of an emergency rule promulgated by the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (“GO-Biz”) that seeks to control the fees companies can pay to professionals who assist them in securing certain state tax incentives. The emergency rule was published on August 8, 2014 and became final just ten days later on August 18, 2014.
Ryan is seeking a declaratory judgment that the emergency rule is unconstitutional and warrants a permanent injunction. In its suit, Ryan contends that GO-Biz has exploited emergency rulemaking procedures in order to insert regulatory requirements and new language with a significantly different purpose and effect from the original emergency regulations adopted in early 2014 to govern the California Competes Tax Credit (“Tax Credit”). In defiance of the Administrative Procedures Act, GO-Biz took a list of factors that the agency is required to review when allocating the Tax Credit and capriciously inserted a requirement purporting to regulate the fee arrangements between taxpayers and the tax professionals assisting them. Ryan asserts that the fee provisions would limit the availability of the Tax Credit by allowing GO-Biz to deny the Tax Credit to taxpayers who qualify under the statutory regime put in place by the California Legislature. Ryan also contends that the rule ignores conflicting Tax Credit provisions in the Revenue and Taxation Code and the conflicting provisions governing professional fees and conduct.
Despite the fact that the California Legislature has recently and repeatedly demonstrated that it does not intend to impose limits on fee arrangements between taxpayers and their consultants, Go-Biz passed—under the guise of acting within its legal grant of power—new regulations outside of its authority that impose caps on contingency fee arrangements of Tax Credit applicants.
“Ryan is leading the charge against this regulatory overreach impacting the ability of taxpayers to obtain representation to pursue their right to a tax credit for driving economic growth and job creation,” said G. Brint Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Ryan. “We will continue to aggressively defend our rights and the rights of our clients to engage advisors in whatever manner they so choose.”
About Ryan
Ryan, an award-winning global tax services and software provider, is the largest Firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides an integrated suite of federal, state, local, and international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including tax recovery, consulting, advocacy, compliance, and technology services. Ryan is an 11-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan’s multidisciplinary team of more than 4,800 professionals and associates serves over 30,000 clients in more than 80 countries, including many of the world’s most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com.
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