Circuit Split Not 'Minor' In $58M Tax Row, Tobacco Co. Says
Christopher Browning and Bryan Haynes were mentioned in a Law360 article titled, “Circuit Split Not 'Minor' In $58M Tax Row, Tobacco Co. Says.” The attorneys are representing King Mountain Tobacco Co. Inc., a Native American tobacco company facing a $58 million tax bill, in a case being heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the article, “The government has asserted that the federal excise tax is imposed ‘on the privilege of manufacturing’ tobacco by the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act. However, King Mountain countered that FETRA imposes a fee, not a tax, on the transportation of tobacco from where it was manufactured.” The company also said that the Supreme Court review was necessary after the Ninth Circuit required a different standard than other circuit courts to interpret the tax provisions of an 1855 treaty with the Yakama Nation.