Judge orders Birmingham to reimburse 5 lawyers for business license taxes on work performed outside the city. (Birmingham News files) BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The City of Birmingham has been ordered by a judge to refund five lawyers the portion of business license taxes the city charged for services the lawyers provided outside the city limits. But the stake for the city may be greater than the thousands of dollars in the case of those five lawyers. A recent lawsuit also challenges Birmingham's business license tax calculations and seeks to become a class action case representing lawyers, architects, engineers and nine other professions that have had all their revenue, including for services provided outside the city, used in the tax calculations. Presiding Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Scott Vowell on Dec.

26 ruled on the appeals of five Birmingham lawyers with the law firm McCallum, Methvin, & Terrell over the assessment of their Birmingham license taxes. The appeals case is confidential and not open for public view. However, Vowell provided a copy of his order in the case.

The five lawyers, James Terrell, P. Michael Yancey, Phillip W. Matthew Stephens, and Robert G. Methvin Jr., calculated the amount of their business license taxes due for the years 2008-2011 to Birmingham based on fees received from legal services provided within the city limits of Birmingham, according to Vowell's order. In 2011 the city initiated an audit of the lawyers' records and issued an assessment on June 4, 2012 in which each of the lawyers was assessed $45,419, Vowell's order states. That tax was based upon the lawyers' annual net gross from all sources, including those services provided outside of Birmingham, the judge writes.

The five lawyers paid the money under protest and appealed, according to Vowell's ruling. The judge consolidated the appeals under one case. The lawyers claim it is unconstitutional for the city to tax the fees they earn for legal services provide outside Birmingham. They also argue that language in the city's business license tax ordinance limits the tax to only those services provided within the city. Birmingham contends it does have the authority to impose a business license tax based on gross receipts of a law firm in the city, even when a part of it was from services rendered outside the city, according to the judge's order. Super Robot Taisen F Iso. But Vowell said the language of the ordinance clearly states that the term 'services rendered within the City of Birmingham' means it cannot include services rendered outside the city. Vowell ordered both the lawyers and city to determine the amount of tax due.

If they can't, he ruled, he would appoint a mediator or someone to help them in determining the amount due. Iar Embedded Workbench For Atmel Avr Keygen on this page. Once the amount due is determined, the city is to refund the amount to the lawyers the difference between what is due and what they've already paid. 'When it is difficult or impractical for a taxing authority to apportion between interstate and intrastate activity, an apportionment formula can and should be employed,' Vowell writes in his order.

'The City maintains that it would be impractical or impossible to fairly apportion its tax.' But Vowell writes in his order that he 'has confidence in the ability of the parties to determine the amount of gross receipts for legal services rendered in the City of Birmingham. By its own terms, the license tax does not apply to fees earned for services performed outside the City of Birmingham.' Vowell said because the language of the ordinance is clear, he was not ruling on the constitutionality of the city business tax ordinance. But he gave his opinion that if the city tax were somehow imposed on all the lawyers' earnings, including those from outside the city, then the ordinance would violate the commerce clause of the United States Constitution because the tax would not be fairly apportioned. The issue of the city assessing the business license taxes is apparently stretching beyond the group of five lawyers., Joel L. DiLorenzo, says the city is illegally taxing lawyers on work they perform outside the city.

But the lawsuit also seeks to be declared a class-action case representing 11 other professions that pay business license taxes in Birmingham and provide services outside the city. Those are: insurance adjustors, real estate appraisers, attorneys, auditors/accountants/bookkeepers, chemist or metallurgists, engineers, veterinary surgeons, court reporters, optometrists, physicians and speech therapists. The DiLorenzo lawsuit has been assigned to Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Robert Vance. Vowell's ruling in the law firm case, however, will not determine what happens in the DiLorenzo case. Download Aplikasi Swapper Buat Android Apps. One circuit court judge's ruling does not determine what happens in another case.