Macy's Refund Slashed by Court

San Francisco, Astate appeals court slashed a refund the city of San Francisco owed Macy's by millions of dollars, despite the retailer's successful challenge to a local business tax, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Macy's won a ruling in 2004 that a business tax imposed by the city in the 1990s was unconstitutional.

A Superior Court judge had granted Macy's request for a refund of the $13 million in business taxes it paid while the ordinance was in effect. But the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the retailer was entitled to recover only the several hundred thousand dollars by which it might have been overtaxed.

The city repealed the ordinance in an $80 million settlement with hundreds of companies that challenged the tax. Macy's did not take part in the settlement.