View Single Post
  #1  
Old 10-01-2007, 10:05 PM
iron81 iron81 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Resident Donk
Posts: 6,806
Default Municipal bonds SCOTUS case

Sorry for the extra thread, but I plan on shipping this to BFI after we're done with it.

This case is making a lot of people nervous in financial circles to the point that the argument is being made that the issue is too important to be left to the courts (a "political question") and that the Court should stay out of it.

Typically, municipal bonds are not subject to state taxes if a resident buys the bond from his home state, but they are taxed if bonds are from a municipality in another state. The Supreme Court will examine if this violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection clause and the Commerce Clause. This case is shaping up to have a huge impact on the $2 trillion dollar municipal bond market.

My take on this is that the Supreme Court will vote to forbid interstate only taxes. Interstate sales taxes have already been ruled a commerce clause violation and the commerce clause has been consistently held to forbid barriers to interstate commerce.
Reply With Quote