E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. State Tax Assessor

E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. State Tax Assessor (Me. 1996) 675 A.2d 82, held that combined water's-edge reporting saved the Maine income tax statute from the fate of the Iowa statute in Kraft Gen. Foods, Inc. v. Iowa Dept. of Revenue and Finance (1992) 505 U.S. 71. The Du Pont court reasoned: "Far from discriminating against foreign commerce, Maine's water's edge combined reporting method provides a type of 'taxing symmetry' that is not present under the single entity system. ... Because the income of the unitary domestic affiliates is included, apportioned, and ultimately directly taxed by Maine as part of the parent company's income, the inclusion of dividends paid by foreign subsidiaries does not constitute the kind of facial discrimination against foreign commerce that caused the Supreme Court to invalidate Iowa's tax scheme in Kraft Gen. Foods, Inc. v. Iowa Dept. of Revenue and Finance." (Id. at pp. 87-88.)