Supreme Court rules for ex-US marshal in W.Va. tax dispute

[Eugene]

Last edited Wed Feb 20, 2019, 12:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Associated Press

15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with a retired U.S. marshal who argued that West Virginia discriminated against former federal law enforcement officers like him by giving a more generous tax break to onetime state law enforcers.

The court has ruled 9-0 that West Virginia law unlawfully discriminated against the retired marshal, James Dawson.

West Virginia law exempted the vast majority of state law enforcement retirees, including police and firefighters, from paying income tax on their retirement benefits. But retired U.S. Marshals Service employees such as Dawson didn’t qualify.

The Supreme Court says a state violates federal law when it treats retired state employees more favorably than retired federal employees when no significant differences between the two groups justify the different treatment.


Read more: https://www.apnews.com/a0e8030508de4bada8899bcacca5baf8

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Short article. No more at link.

Related: 17-419 Dawson v. Steager (Supreme Court of the United States)

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Other states I think will be impacted by this ruling too. I think in MO, benefits pd to such ...

employees were exempt but with all of the tax law changes going on in response to the 2017 tax cut and jobs law passed by the rump admin (and consequent responses by states afterwards), you might want to recheck with your tax professional.

[lostnfound]

2. That's a little shocking. Why wouldn't this also affect homestead exemptions etc.?

People are given discounts based on age routinely.
And homestead or property taxes are reduced for senior citizens as well as long term residents (caps).

Surprising they’d decide what kind of rules the states can use to set tax policy.