Southwest Airlines Co. v. Arizona Department of Revenue

OPINION

NOYES, Presiding Judge.

¶ 1 Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated (“A.R.S.”) section 12-348 (Supp.1999) authorizes a court to award attorneys’ fees to a taxpayer who prevails on the merits in an action challenging the assessment or collection of taxes. Section 12 — 348(E)(5) provides that “an award of fees against the state or a city, town or county shall not exceed twenty thousand dollars.” 1 In this case, the court of appeals awarded the taxpayer $20,000 in attorneys’ fees, and later the tax court did the same thing, for a total award of $40,000. The tax court reasoned that the second…