By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Supreme Court seemed wary about a business-backed challenge that could make it almost impossible for consumers to band together to make claims against their cell phone carriers, cable providers and credit card companies.

The court heard argument Tuesday in a dispute between wireless provider AT&T Mobility and a California couple who objected to being charged around $30 in sales tax for what they were told was a free cell phone.

Like many such contracts, the fine print of the agreement between AT&T and Liza and Vincent Concepcion calls for all disputes to be settled by arbitration and prohibits customers from joining forces in a class-action. The federal appeals court in San Francisco said that ban is unenforceable under California law.

The case is important because if the court rules for AT&T, it could greatly restrict the use of class actions, in which a party represents a much larger group, in disputes over contracts. AT&T is backed by an array of business interests, while consumer groups and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund are among supporters of the Concepcions.

Business interests generally oppose class actions because they are costly to litigate and can result in massive payouts.

Andrew Pincus, AT&T's lawyer, said companies prefer arbitration with individuals. But he said they dislike arbitration with multiple parties because they can't be appealed and afford less protections than federal courts.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

There's been another federal court ruling New York's attempts to tax most Indian reservation smokeshop sales, but the issue is far from settled.

U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara in Buffalo has denied a request to block the state from collecting sales tax on cigarettes sold to non-Indians. But he froze his decision so the two tribes who requested the order can appeal.

That means New York still can't start collecting the $4.35-per-pack sales tax until a higher court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, hears the case.

The latest ruling was issued Tuesday in a case brought by the Unkechaug and St. Regis Mohawk tribes. It mirrors an earlier decision in a challenge by the Seneca and Cayuga nations.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

President Barack Obama is appealing to victorious Republicans to go along with his plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class, saying the election is over and it's time to down to business.

But it's not fair, he says, to make permanent the Bush-era cuts for the wealthiest because that would require the U.S. to borrow $700 billion more to pay for it.

"The campaign season is over," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and online address. "And it's time to focus on our shared responsibilities and work together."

Obama's long-standing position has been that individuals with incomes less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000 should continue to enjoy the tax cuts enacted during George W. Bush's presidency but that those making more should return to the higher rates before Bush took office. The cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, are due to expire Dec. 31.

"We'd be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden onto our children," he said, referring to permanent extension of the tax cuts for wealthier Americans.

Republicans said this week they strongly favor renewing all the Bush tax cuts, given the struggling economy.

The White House said this past week after stinging midterm elections for Democrats that Obama is willing to consider a compromise for a one- or two-year extension of all the tax cuts, even for families earning more than $250,000 a year.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Georgia Supreme Court has reversed a lower court's decision and reinstated a lawsuit by a man who claims that some private Atlanta development projects have received unconstitutional tax breaks.

By a 4-3 vote, the court ruled Monday that the lower court prematurely dismissed a lawsuit by John Sherman, president of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, before reviewing all the facts.

Sherman's suit alleges that the methods used by the Fulton County Board of Assessors to assess the value of properties called "bond transaction leaseholds" is illegal and unconstitutional.

Sherman says bond transaction leasehold estates are assessed at less than fair market value and developers pay less in property taxes.

The high court's majority says the trial court was wrong to dismiss the case based only on written arguments.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln said Monday she may propose extending the Bush-era tax cuts to wealthier Americans, as well as the middle-class tax cuts that President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Washington want to maintain.

Lincoln, who last week said she may support including those who make as much as $1 million a year in the cuts, said she's researching to see if a compromise is possible on the cuts. Lincoln, a Democrat, is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in Washington seeking re-election.

Lincoln sits on the Senate Finance Committee.

"As a part of that tax-writing committee, I think I have a responsibility along with other members of that committee to figure out whether we can find some sort of compromise of what is the best way to meet our objective of strengthening the economy and bringing down our debt and putting people back to work," Lincoln told The Associated Press in an interview.

Obama and Democratic leaders have said that after the November elections, they want to extend tax cuts for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000. Republicans and a growing number of rank-and-file Democrats want to extend them all — even those for the wealthy — at least temporarily.

Lincoln had floated the idea of a compromise last week during a speech in Little Rock. On Monday, she said she's asked for numbers from the Congressional Budget Office on how much it would cost to offer more in tax cuts. On Friday she said she believed it was reasonable to consider extending the tax cuts to those making between $250,000 and $1 million a year.

Lincoln said her openness to a compromise on the tax cuts shows that she's willing to disagree with the Obama administration and fellow Democrats. Her Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. John Boozman, has criticized Lincoln as too closely allied with the president.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The dominant Indian nation in New York's lucrative tax-free cigarette market says it should remain exempt from the state's plans to tax most reservation sales because those plans are flawed.

Lawyers for the Seneca Nation, along with Cayuga Nation lawyers, argued in federal court in Buffalo on Thursday for a preliminary injunction, saying the state's untested system for collecting the $4.35-per-pack tax on sales to non-Indian smokeshop customers would excessively burden tribal governments.

The judge took no action but left a temporary order blocking collections in place until Oct. 15. It's one of three separate court orders now preventing the state from going forward with the tax as planned Sept. 1.

At least five New York Indian nations are fighting the tax in court.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

President Barack Obama will call on Congress to pass new tax breaks that would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their new capital investments through 2011, the latest in a series of proposals the White House is rolling out in hopes of showing action on the economy ahead of the November elections.

An administration official said the tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion over two years, allowing companies to have more cash on hand. The president will outline the proposal during a speech on the economy in Cleveland Wednesday.

Amid an uptick in unemployment to 9.6 percent, and polls showing that the November election could be dismal for Democrats, Obama has promised to propose new steps to stimulate the economy. In addition to the business investment tax breaks, he will also call for a $50 billion infrastructure investment and a permanent expansion of research and development tax credits for companies.

The proposals would requires congressional approval, which is highly uncertain given Washington's partisan atmosphere.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The latest in a tangled series of state and federal court decisions has halted New York state's plan to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American retailers to non-Indian customers.

A state appellate court judge in western New York on Wednesday restored an order stopping the collections, Gov. David Paterson's office said. An earlier order had been lifted Monday by a state judge, a decision appealed by the Seneca and Cayuga nations.

Those tribes won a separate federal court order Tuesday temporarily barring collections against them. But the state had said it would start imposing the $4.35 per pack levy on other reservation retailers starting Wednesday.

"We are disappointed today that the appellate division has stayed the implementation of our statute and regulations with respect to licensed stamping agents," Paterson spokeswoman Jessica Bassett said. "Despite this ruling, we believe the state's legal arguments are sound and we believe that ultimately the state will prevail in this matter."

The Indians' challenges are in multiple courts because they're attacking the taxation on several levels. The Senecas' federal court suit, which the Cayugas joined, seeks to invalidate the state tax law by arguing New York lacks jurisiction to regulate Indian nations within their territories. The tribes' state court challenge, meanwhile, opposes the expedited way New York tax officials chose to adopt the regulations to implement the law, not the law itself.

Attempts to collect the tax in the 1990s resulted in sometimes-violent protests and fires on Seneca territories, which at one point shut down the New York State Thruway where it bisects the Senecas' Cattaraugus reservation. State officials have been reluctant to push the issue since.

But with New York facing a fiscal crisis, the governor and state lawmakers vowed in June to go after what they view as a potential $200 million revenue source by requiring cigarette wholesalers, effective Sept. 1, to prepay the sales taxes before supplying reservation stores.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Lawyers for Indian tribes are in federal court today to make a last-ditch effort to stop legislation taxing reservation cigarette sales to non-Indian customers.

This comes after a state judge yesterday refused to block New York State from enforcing a $4.35 per pack tax starting tomorrow.

Seneca Indian Nation officials had argued that the state circumvented procedures by adopting the regulations on an emergency basis.

The tax is expected to generate an estimated $200 million a year in revenues for the state.

Tribes argue the plan infringes on their sovereignty and could damage their economies.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Many Americans could be hit with a big tax increase in the next two or three years despite President Barack Obama's repeated promises to shield the middle class from higher rates.

Democrats are hedging about making Obama's pledge stick for more than a year or two, setting up a major battle on a super-sensitive subject just before the November elections.

With the most sweeping tax cuts in a generation due to expire in January, the Democrats are divided over whether the government can afford to make any of them permanent — especially with voters increasingly upset over the fast-rising federal budget deficit.

Party lines are clear on part of the issue: Most Republicans want to permanently extend all the tax cuts enacted during George W. Bush's presidency, nearly $3 trillion worth over the next decade. Democratic leaders want to let the cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire.

The Democrats want to extend them for everyone else, but perhaps only temporarily, out of concern for the rising red ink. That's where Democratic lawmakers are struggling to find agreement.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.