General Mills, Inc. v. Commissioner of Revenue

In 1988, General Mills, Inc., a Delaware corporation doing business in Massachusetts, sold its interest in two wholly owned subsidiaries: Eddie Bauer, Inc., a foreign corporation, and Talbots, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation. The corporations paid corporate excise taxes assessed and self-assessed for the fiscal year involved, then filed an application for abatement with the Commissioner of Revenue (commissioner). The application was denied. Three items for which abatement was sought are the subject of this appeal. The first involved an apportionable tax assessed to General Mills, after…