Montana's Supreme Court has sided with a Wyoming mining company in a dispute with state tax authorities who challenged the coal industry practice of making sales through affiliates.
The unanimous high court ruling means Montana tax authorities must recalculate a $3.4 million tax bill for Gillette-based Cloud Peak Energy.
Department of Revenue spokeswoman Molly Petersen said Monday it was uncertain when the recalculation would be completed.
The state had alleged coal sales between mining companies and their own affiliates were subject to manipulation and needed to be treated differently than other sales.
But in the Jan. 13 ruling, justices upheld a lower court ruling that said Cloud Peak was following state law when it compared such sales to contracts with third parties reached at roughly the same time.
