On February 6, 2020, the Oregon Department of Revenue (“DOR”) sent out notices of an upcoming “Education Tour” and provided additional informal guidance regarding Oregon’s new Corporate Activity Tax (“CAT”). Here is a brief overview.
Education Tour
Starting on Monday, March 2 and continuing through Thursday, March 19, the DOR will be hosting a series of meetings across Oregon to “provide information to business taxpayers and tax professionals about the administrative rules for” the CAT. The DOR will start in Bend and end in Keizer, hitting major population centers along the way. The complete schedule, which includes dates, times, and addresses, may be found here. Dan is planning on attending the March 12 tour stop in Gresham, and will report back on what he learns that evening.
The DOR announced you may now make CAT payments through Revenue Online. The DOR included a “Make A Payment” prompt on its website.
The DOR added two new frequently asked questions to its website. For the first time, the DOR included “fact sheets” in its answers to those questions. These new FAQs are summarized as follows:
“Are receipts from sales to Oregon wholesalers excluded?” The DOR answers this by indicating that “sales to a wholesaler for retail outside of Oregon may be excluded from Oregon commercial activity under the” CAT. This FAQ includes links to both a “fact sheet” and a sample “Out-of-State Resale Certificate for Sales to Wholesalers” (the “Certificate”). Oddly, the Certificate is not a certificate, but rather a description of the sorts of information that might be included in a document that qualifies as a certificate for this purpose.
“Can I exclude receipts from the sale of groceries?” The DOR answers this by indicating that “receipts from the retail or wholesale sale of groceries are excluded.” This FAQ also includes a link to a “fact sheet.”
Next Up?
The DOR has indicated it intends to issue additional temporary rules in March, before it begins issuing permanent rules in April, May, and June. Up until now, the DOR has been issuing draft rules in advance of its issuance of temporary rules. With that in mind, we should expect at least one more draft rule before the end of February. That is our best guess. If anything changes, we will be in touch.
If you have any questions or comments about the CAT, please do not hesitate to contact Dan Eller or Alee Soleimanpour.
Related articles:
The DOR Issues Second Round of Temporary CAT Rules
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