MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue

MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Dept. of Revenue

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued January 16, 2008
Decided April 15, 2008

Full case name

MeadWestvaco Corp., Successor in Interest to Mead Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue, et al.

Docket nos.

06-1413

Citations

553 U.S. 16 (more)

128 S.Ct. 1498, 170 L.Ed.2d 404

Prior history

Certiorari to the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District

Holding

The state courts erred in considering whether Lexis served an “operational purpose” in Mead’s business after determining that Lexis and Mead were not unitary.

Court membership

Chief Justice John G. Roberts

Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito

Case opinions

Majority

Alito, joined by unanimous court

Concurrence

Thomas

MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Dept. of Revenue, 553 U.S. 16 (2008) is a United States Supreme Court case concerning the extent a state may tax companies that are not based in their state.

Mead, a corporation based out of Ohio, owned Lexis-Nexis, which was based out of Illinois. Mead sold Lexis, and Illinois maintained that Mead must pay them a proportionate capital-gains tax. Illinois asserted that Mead and Lexis were integrated to the extent required for the "unitary business rule". This rule allowed states to tax a proportionate share of the value generated by an interstate corporation.

The Supreme Court held that the two businesses were not integrated enough to be considered a "unitary business" and Illinois was not allowed to tax Mead on the Lexis sale.

External links

Full decision

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