Eric J. Kodesch

Partner He / Him / His

Portland

Tel 503.778.2107
Fax 206.289.1609

Eric Kodesch counsels clients on a wide array of federal income tax, and state and local tax issues in both transactional and litigation matters, including general business planning, structuring investments to obtain opportunity zone benefits, financial transactions, trust taxation, executive compensation, and choice of entity issues. Eric also assists clients with payroll protection program (PPP) loan issues and other CARES Act issues.

For state and local matters, Eric assists clients with obtaining tax incentives such as property tax exemptions for new investments and in resolving audits, even when litigation is necessary. He provides experience in navigating these friendly or adversarial situations. Eric also regularly represents clients in the Oregon Tax Court in controversies involving Oregon corporation excise tax and property tax. His representative experience in this space includes:

State taxation of international transactions
Oregon commercial activity tax (CAT)
The gross proceeds-based minimum tax
Property taxation of centrally assessed businesses
Public Law No. 86-272 and nexus
Consolidated returns and unitary accounting
Statute of limitations
Business/nonbusiness income

Services

Experience

Representative Matters

OREGON SUPREME COURT

Conway, Inc. v. Dept. of Rev. *

Summary judgment for Conway, Inc. that the ORS 317.090 minimum tax can be paid with tax credits. The Oregon legislature prospectively changed ORS 317.090 to prevent the use of tax credits.

D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, et al. v. Dept. of Rev.

Summary judgment for the Department of Revenue that the department's supervisory authority over the Oregon property tax system does not include the ability to correct the assessment roll for centrally assessed property where the parties agree to facts indicating a likely error. The department has this authority for locally assessed property.

Tektronix Inc. v. Dept. of Rev. *

Summary judgment for Tektronix that gross receipts and gain from the sale of goodwill and other self-created intangibles are excluded from the numerator and the denominator of the Oregon sales factor

Northwest Natural Gas Co. v Dept. of Rev. *

Summary judgment for Northwest Natural that its natural gas inventories are exempt from Oregon property tax. The fact that that its property is centrally assessed by the Department, rather than locally assessed by the applicable county, does not impact the inventory exemption

OREGON TAX COURT – REGULAR DIVISION

Oracle Corp. v. Dept. of Rev.

In initial proceedings in which we were not involved, the court ruled that a controlled foreign corporation's Subpart F income included in a shareholder's income is not a "gross receipt" of the shareholder for Oregon sales factor purposes, because the shareholder did not actually receive a distribution. On reconsideration, the court agreed with Oracle that gross receipts are based on the shareholder's method of accounting so that Subpart F income is a gross receipt for Oregon sales factor purposes.

EAN Holdings, LLC v. Dept. of Rev.

Summary judgment for the Department of Revenue that bulk purchases of vehicles by a car rental company to rent to customers are purchases at retail, so the Oregon vehicle use tax applies to vehicles purchased outside of Oregon and used in Oregon

ABC Inc. v. Dept. of Rev.

Serving as local counsel, Eric formulated and helped develop the winning argument, which was based on the text of the Oregon statute that incorporates the Joyce rule. The court granted ABC Inc.'s motion for partial summary judgment that each member of a unitary group joining in an Oregon consolidated return determines its contribution to the numerator of the group's Oregon sales factor based on the UDITPA method applicable to the member. In other words, the interstate broadcaster rules that apply to ABC Inc. do not apply to the unitary affiliates that operate Disney theme parks and hotels.

Cook v. Dept. of Rev. *

Partial summary judgment in favor of Cook that a nonresident's total Oregon-source income from flow-through entities is the sum of the Oregon-source income amounts determined at the entity level. There is no flow-through of income subject to apportionment and apportionment factors, with Oregon-source income determined at the Oregon nonresident level.

Stancorp Financial Group Inc. v. Dept. of Rev. *

Summary judgment in favor of Stancorp Financial Group Inc. that dividends paid by an insurance subsidiary that are eliminated in the computation of federal taxable income remain eliminated in the computation of Oregon taxable income

US West Inc. and Subsidiaries v. Dept. of Rev. *

Summary judgment in favor of the Department upholding the department's method of divvying a net operating loss carryover among former members of a federal consolidated group following a spin-off

Dept. of Rev. v. U-Haul Co. of Oregon *

Summary judgment in favor of the Department that IRC § 162(k) prevented a deduction for any of the indemnification payments made by a corporation to directors with respect to a lawsuit brought by other shareholders

OREGON TAX COURT – MAGISTRATE DIVISION

Breeding v. Dept. of Rev. *