MT Department of Revenue and AT&T Reach Settlement Over Tax Differences

Ever since a Montana Supreme Court decision found that the Montana Department of Revenue had incorrectly taxed AT&T’s intangible personal property, both AT&T and the state of Montana have been in settlement negotiations over what to do with the money. Montana Department of Revenue Director Mike Kadas says they have finally reached a settlement agreement.

"The total assessed amount is about 12 million dollars, they protested almost 9 million dollars," Kadas said. "Almost 6 million of the 9 million will go back to the various tax interest jurisdictions and about 3 million of the 9 million will go back to AT&T."

Kadas says the tax law is vague and that this will probably not be the end of tax difficulties between the state and AT&T.

"It's likely we will continue to have differences in the future, that wouldn't surprise me one bit," Kadas said. "But we got this past us and we have some guidance from the Supreme Court. It's a difficult issue. Unfortunately, the statute that we are working on is not as clear as we hoped."

There were efforts during the last legislative session to update the vague tax code’s language, but Kadas says his Department did not support the legislation because it would have reduced taxes on telecommunications companies. Kadas says the settlement was “reasonable.”