Department of Revenue of the State of Colorado; and Michael Hartman

Summary

The court held that the Department of Revenue could not require Agilent to include its holding-company subsidiary, World Trade, in Colorado combined income tax returns because World Trade had no property or payroll assigned to locations inside the United States and therefore was not an includable C corporation. The court also held that the Department could not alternatively allocate World Trade's income to Agilent under the statutory provision addressing abuse and clear reflection of income, because the combined-reporting provision superseded that authority for affiliated C corporations and the undisputed facts showed no abuse. The court affirmed the judgment granting summary judgment to Agilent.