Washington’s high court has declined to spare Citibank from a $6 million business tax bill, ruling that the bank’s money-making activities amounted to a physical presence in the state despite not having any local branches open at the time.
According to a notice published online, the Washington State Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to grant Citibank South Dakota NA’s petition for review of the Court of Appeals’ Nov. 14 ruling. The appeals court had determined that the state Department of Revenue had appropriately assessed the bank more than $6 million in business and occupation taxes from 2007 to mid-2010.
Citibank has argued that the state shouldn’t be able to force it to retroactively pay the tax on its credit card business from January 2007 to May 2010 because the bank did not have employees or offices in Washington during that time. According to the bank, the state began in 2010 to impose the tax on those engaged in business in the state, regardless of whether they had a physical presence.
