Deveau v. Commissioner of Revenue

Seventeen nonresidents of Massachusetts (appellants) appeal from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board (board) upholding the denial by the Commissioner of Revenue (commissioner) of their applications to abate personal income taxes for the 1988, 1989, and 1990 tax years.2 The board ruled, based *421on a legal position that the commissioner first asserted on the morning of the board hearing, that the appellants were engaged in a trade or business within the Commonwealth.

Prior to the board hearing, the commissioner had taken the position that income taxes were properly assessed against the…