Refund of Previously Paid Sales Tax

Representation a large locally based developer in a constitutional challenge to the Arizona Department of Revenue's refusal to grant to the developer a refund of sales taxes previously paid, where the Department of Revenue had not, on audit, collected those same sales taxes from the developer's competitors. The Arizona Court of Appeals held that the equal protection clause required that the Department of Revenue give equal treatment to similarly situated taxpayers and ordered a refund of the taxes in question to the developer. This has evolved into a landmark Arizona tax case and has had far-reaching ramifications for all Arizona state and local taxing jurisdictions.