Success Story

Spearheading An Effort to Return Millions of Dollars to Business from Improperly Collected Electricity Sales Taxes

SITUATION
While working as the Energy Manager for a leading supermarket chain, Gary Markowitz discovered that all investor-owned utilities were collecting sales tax on the commodity portion of electricity delivery. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' legislation of March 1998 specifically prohibited further collection of this tax once customers took advantage of deregulation. Mr. Markowitz contacted a number of major New England companies to determine the impact of this impropriety. His research revealed that the utilities were collecting millions of dollars from their customers, with no evidence of where the sales tax funds were going. Mr. Markowitz then contacted the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE), which referred the matter to the state Department of Revenue (DOR.)