MMN Infrastructure Services, LLC, Successor in Interest to Vectren Infrastructure Services Corp. v. Michigan Department of Treasury

This case concerns a state’s attempt to tax a company’s value based on de minimis, temporary contacts when that company is already subject to tax on such value in another state, an issue of national importance affecting interstate commerce, extraterritorial taxation, and a split among state courts of last resort. Minnesota Limited, Inc., was a Minnesota company with a Minnesota headquarter and substantial assets in Minnesota. The corporation had almost no assets in Michigan. In 2011, Petitioner Vectren Infrastructure, n/k/a MMN Infrastructure Services, LLC, purchased Minnesota Limited in an asset sale. The gain on the sale of the enterprise made up $51 million of the company’s $55 million income, about 93%, which the company rightly attributed to out-of-state economic activity. The enterprise sale occurred at the end of March, resulting in a three-month “short tax year” filing. During those three months, its offseason, Minnesota Limited was engaged in the cleanup of an oil spill in Michigan. The State of Michigan used those anomalies to claim 70% of the taxable value of the entire company, refusing to apportion the enterprise-sale income to out-of-state activity. The Michigan Supreme Court’s 4–3 decision upholding that tax assessment raises two questions for this Court’s review: 1. Whether, to comply with the requirements of fair apportionment and the prohibition on extraterritorial taxation, a state must include in its state tax