Abrams Airborne Manufacturing, Inc. v. State Department of Revenue

917 P.2d 1236, 185 Ariz. 589, 211 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 31, 1996 Ariz. App. LEXIS 37
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedFebruary 29, 1996
DocketNo. 1 CA-TX 94-0019
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 917 P.2d 1236 (Abrams Airborne Manufacturing, Inc. v. State Department of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abrams Airborne Manufacturing, Inc. v. State Department of Revenue, 917 P.2d 1236, 185 Ariz. 589, 211 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 31, 1996 Ariz. App. LEXIS 37 (Ark. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

FIDEL, Presiding Judge.

An Arizona statute requires counties to refund taxes that result from “an erroneous [591]*591assessment.” Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated (“A.R.S.”) § 11-506(A). We decide in this appeal that an assessment stemming from the taxpayer’s own error in classifying its property does qualify as “an erroneous assessment” within the meaning of the statute if all other statutory conditions are met.

I.

Abrams Airborne Manufacturing, Inc. (“Abrams”) filed State of Arizona business personal property statements in 1990, 1991, and 1992 that erroneously identified computer equipment as “machinery and equipment” rather than “Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) equipment.” Had the equipment been properly reported, Abrams’s tax liability would have been lower than the amount that Pima County assessed.

Abrams filed a petition for special action and complaint in the tax court, seeking a refund pursuant to A.R.S. § 11-506. After Pima County and the State Department of Revenue filed answers, the tax court on its own motion issued a minute entry denying the special action. Appellee Pima County subsequently moved for summary judgment on the remaining claim, arguing that there were no disputed factual issues. The tax court granted the motion and entered the judgment from which Abrams now appeals.

II.

We review a tax court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Wilderness World, Inc. v. Arizona Dep’t of Revenue, 182 Ariz. 196, 198, 895 P.2d 108, 110 (1995). We are not bound by the tax court’s conclusions of law. Id.

This dispute centers around the interpretation of AR.S. § 11-506, which provides in part:

A. If all or part of a property tax has been paid on an erroneous assessment after such assessment is first verified by the county assessor and then verified by the department of revenue, the county board of supervisors shall direct the county treasurer to grant a refund to the taxpay-er____
B. For purposes of this section, an erroneous assessment is limited to a clerical or computational error or any other error not involving the exercise of discretion, opinion or judgment by the assessor or the department.

The tax court found that Abrams could not seek a refund under this statute because the classification error was one that involved “the exercise of discretion” and because the statute did not allow recovery when the error was caused by the taxpayer. We disagree.

A.

We begin by examining the language of the statute. The taxpayer’s reporting error was clearly not “a clerical or computational error.” AR.S. § 11-506(B). We therefore examine the “or any other error” provision to determine whether it encompasses an error of the kind presented here.

Appellees attempt to confine the “any other error” provision to errors by tax authorities and to exclude taxpayer errors. Specifically, appellees argue that the phrase “by the assessor or the department” modifies all of the preceding language in subsection (B), while Abrams argues that it modifies only the phrase “the exercise of discretion, opinion or judgment.” We interpret the statute as does Abrams. Appellees’ contrary argument would rewrite subsection (B) to read:

B. For purposes of this section, an erroneous assessment is limited to a clerical or computational error [BY THE ASSESSOR OR THE DEPARTMENT] or any other error [BY THE ASSESSOR OR THE DEPARTMENT] not involving the exercise of discretion, opinion or judgment by the assessor or the department.

But that is not the statute the legislature chose to write. In our view, the “any other error” language of the statute excludes only those errors “not involving the exercise of discretion, opinion or judgment by the assessor or the department.” Because the statute’s language does not withhold a remedy from a taxpayer whose own error results in overpayment, we will not read such a limit into the statute. See State v. Korzep, 165 Ariz. 490, 493-94, 799 P.2d 831, 834-35 (1990) [592]*592(refusing to limit application of a statute to a specific group of people when the language of the statute contained no such limitation).

Further, we observe that the purpose of a refund statute such as A.R.S. § 11-506 “is to prevent the [county] from unjustly retaining and to assure a taxpayer reimbursement of erroneous over payments” when the elements of the statute are met. Cf. Pittsburgh & Midway Coal Mining Co. v. Arizona Dep’t of Revenue, 156 Ariz. 568, 569, 754 P.2d 295, 296 (App.1987), aff'd 161 Ariz. 135, 776 P.2d 1061 (1989). This purpose applies, as does the language of section 11-506, whether the error is that of the taxpayer or the tax collector.

B.

The question remains whether the error in this case is an excluded error—specifically one involving an “exercise of discretion, opinion or judgment by the assessor or the department.” See A.R.S. § 11-506(B). Recent decisions of this court have clarified the scope of errors remediable under section 11-506. In S & R Properties v. Maricopa County we stated,

This construction of the statutory scheme presupposes that the error ... will be one plainly and indisputably revealed by the County’s own records or the taxpayer’s claim____ [When] the error is clear and indisputable ... DOR should verify that error, and the County should issue a refund without the necessity of a formal appeal.
On the other hand, if an alleged erroneous assessment cannot be determined without the resolution of disputed issues of fact ... it is not an error that can be “verified” by DOR.

178 Ariz. 491, 501-02, 875 P.2d 150, 160-61 (App.1993) (citations omitted). Applying S & R Properties in a later case, we found that a taxpayer could not request a refund pursuant to section 11-506 for a contested reclassification of property because “the tax court would necessarily have to decide disputed factual and legal issues” to determine whether the assessment was, in fact, erroneous. Ringier American v. Arizona Dep’t of Revenue, 184 Ariz. 250, 253, 908 P.2d 64, 67 (App.1995). Similarly, we held that classification of land as nonagricultural rather than agricultural was not an “erroneous assessment” within the meaning of section 11-506 when “[t]he Assessor’s acts, whether right or wrong, were not mistakes” but “were an implementation of policy.” Widger v. Arizona Dep’t of Revenue, 183 Ariz.

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917 P.2d 1236, 185 Ariz. 589, 211 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 31, 1996 Ariz. App. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abrams-airborne-manufacturing-inc-v-state-department-of-revenue-arizctapp-1996.