Engineering Firm Disputes California Tax Treatment of Dividends

California was wrong to deny deductions for dividends of more than $1 billion derived from construction projects, Nebraska construction and engineering company Kiewit Corp. told an appeals court.

The company wants the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, to hold it’s entitled to a $1.67 million refund of franchise taxes it overpaid for tax year 2015 because state law allows corporate taxpayers to deduct the full amount of qualifying dividends “derived from a construction project.” Kiewit also argues in its opening brief posted Wednesday that it should be able to include the entire amount of gross foreign dividends in ...