Amoco Wins Tax Case

Fredrikson & Byron attorney Tom Muck secured a victory on behalf of Amoco that will save the company millions of dollars in taxes. Minnesota was attempting to apply its corporate income tax to Amoco’s petroleum exploration and production operations. Amoco has no exploration or production operations in Minnesota. The State, however, sought to tax them on the theory that under the Minnesota tax statutes those operations were part of a “unitary business” with the refined petroleum product sales business which Amoco does carry on in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed an opinion of the Minnesota Tax Court that the Minnesota statutory definition of unitary business in effect through 1998 does not tax as extensively as the U.S. Constitution permits and that Amoco’s exploration and production operations were not unitary with its refining and marketing operations under the statutory definition. Minnesota Supreme Court’s Opinion.