Caterpillar, Inc v. Department of Treasury

Following a bench trial, the Court of Claims essentially made three rulings: (1) the capital acquisition deduction (cad) provisions of the Single Business Tax Act (sbta) violate the Commerce Clause of the federal constitution, US Const, art I, § 8; (2) under both state and federal law, its decision with regard to the constitutionality of the cad applies prospectively; and (3) the correct remedy is to sever the cad provisions from the act. Plaintiff appeals the court’s latter two rulings. We affirm in part and modify in part.

A brief background on the sbta and the cad deductions is in order.…