Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

  In a United States District Court case brought by Monroe County on behalf of a class of Florida counties against various on-line travel companies (OTCs) that allegedly failed to remit county tourist development taxes (TDTs), the court granted the OTCs' motion to dismiss the county's claim for permanent injunctive relief, but denied the OTCs' motion to dismiss the county's other claims. The county claimed that injunctive relief was necessary because it lacked an adequate remedy at law and would suffer irreparable harm without a permanent injunction and that these two elements are presumed satisfied when a government seeks to enforce its police power. However, the county was seeking to enforce its taxing power and not its police power; it had a host of administrative, civil, and criminal enforcement remedies to ensure compliance with its tax laws; and it failed to prove that it would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction. Also, the proposed injunction would require a federal district court to indefinitely oversee a municipal tax ordinance, which is not appropriate to the court's function.