Joseph Bright, a member of Cozen O'Connor's Tax Practice Group, wrote an article for Bloomberg Law discussing the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently ruling that an electric wholesaler is subject to the state's gross receipts tax. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court en banc affirmed the decision of a panel that a taxpayer engaged in the business of the wholesale of electricity was subject to the gross receipts tax (formerly titled the utilities gross receipts tax). American Electric Power Service Corp. v. Commonwealth, No. 861 F.R. 2013 (Pa. Commw. Mar. 15, 2018). The taxpayer sold electricity in Pennsylvania on a wholesale basis. It did not provide electricity to end-user customers and was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). As a wholesaler, the taxpayer was regulated solely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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