The government doesn’t violate the automatic stay by refusing to reinstate a driver’s license suspended for failure to pay traffic fines, Judge Surratt-States says.
The Third and Seventh Circuits agree on a concept that limits a debtor’s ability to recover accrued Social Security benefits that are set off before bankruptcy.
New Hampshire is one of five states without a broad-based statewide sales tax, a status that had insulated retailers from a task familiar to businesses elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported. The cushion lasted until the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, which lets states require retailers to collect sales taxes even if those businesses lack a physical presence in the state. This decision was a “huge mistake,” says New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who expects to sign legislation this week to make it harder for other states to impose collection requirements on New Hampshire retailers. “We’re not saying states can’t do it. We’re just putting up a lot of hurdles that states have to jump over,” Gov. Sununu said. “We’re not going down without a fight.” The Supreme Court cast its ruling as a reflection of changing business models, where physical presence of a retailer isn’t the bright line between state tax systems that it once was. For those doing business online, this now opens them up to tax-collection demands from outside New Hampshire. States with sales taxes are still figuring out how they’ll approach out-of-state retailers. New Hampshire, with a special legislative session scheduled for Wednesday, isn’t waiting to respond. Its reaction to the court’s decision will spur the next round of skirmishes over cross-border sales-tax collection.
Seven weeks apart, two circuits reach diametrically different conclusions about good faith as a defense to an intentional act that violates the discharge injunction.
