Capital One Auto Fin. Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue

423 P.3d 80, 363 Or. 441
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 9, 2018
DocketTC 5197 (SC S064803)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 423 P.3d 80 (Capital One Auto Fin. Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Capital One Auto Fin. Inc. v. Dep't of Revenue, 423 P.3d 80, 363 Or. 441 (Or. 2018).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

*81**442Capital One Auto Finance, Inc. (taxpayer) filed consolidated Oregon corporate excise tax returns as part of a group that included two corporate affiliates. Taxpayer disputed the Department of Revenue's contention that it owed additional taxes and filed an action in the Tax Court. The ultimate issue in this case is whether taxpayer's corporate affiliates, which do not have a physical presence in this state, were subject to either Oregon's corporate excise tax or its corporate income tax for the tax years 2006-2008. Preliminarily, taxpayer also asserts that the department lacked the authority to assert for the first time in the Tax Court that the affiliates were subject to corporate income tax.

Ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment, the Tax Court concluded that the affiliates were subject to the corporate income tax and entered judgment in favor of the department. Capital One Auto Finance, Inc. v. Dept. of Rev. , 22 OTR 326, 2016 WL 7429522 (2016). On taxpayer's appeal, we conclude that the department timely raised the corporate income tax issue and that the corporate affiliates are subject to the corporate income tax based on "income derived from sources within this state." ORS 318.020(1). Accordingly, because there was no genuine issue of material fact for trial and the department was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, we affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND LEGAL BACKGROUND

A. Corporate Tax Structure

Before describing the facts and procedural history, we provide a brief overview of Oregon's corporate tax structure. Oregon has two different-but closely related-tax regimes for multistate corporations: the corporate excise tax and the corporate income tax. In a nutshell, to supplement the corporate excise tax, the corporate income tax was enacted in 1955 in response to a United States Supreme Court case that had determined the constitutionality of state taxation of corporations based on how the tax statutes were drafted. The dual corporate tax regime remains in place today, although the case that provided the impetus and need for enactment of a corporate income tax to supplement the excise tax has since been overruled.

**443The corporate income tax is found in ORS chapter 318.1 The relevant statute provides in part:

"(1) There hereby is imposed upon every corporation for each taxable year a tax * * * upon its Oregon taxable income derived from sources within this state * * *.
"(2) Income from sources within this state includes income from tangible or intangible property located or having a situs in this state and income from any activities carried on in this state, regardless of whether carried on in intrastate, interstate or foreign commerce."

ORS 318.020. During the proceeding before the Tax Court, the department relied on ORS 318.020 to argue that taxpayer's affiliates owed corporate income tax on income derived from sources within Oregon.

The corporate excise tax, found in ORS chapter 317, is not a tax on Oregon income, but a tax on the privilege of doing *82business in Oregon that is measured by Oregon income.2 Thus, ORS 317.070 provides:

"Every * * * business corporation and every financial institution doing business within this state * * * shall annually pay to this state, for the privilege of carrying on or doing business by it within this state, an excise tax according to or measured by its Oregon taxable income * * *."

The corporate income tax and the corporate excise tax are not duplicative; they create the same tax liability, but on different bases. See ORS 318.020(1) (creating corporate income tax at same rate as prescribed in ORS chapter 317, and adding that corporate income tax does not apply to "income for which the corporation is subject to the tax imposed by ORS chapter 317 according to or measured by its Oregon taxable income"). In light of the department's assertion of the corporate income tax, as opposed to the corporate **444excise tax, as a basis for taxpayer's tax liability, we find it helpful to explain the development of and relationship between the two corporate taxes.

Those two tax schemes were enacted at different times. The corporate excise tax was first enacted in Oregon in 1929. Or. Laws 1929, ch. 427. As this court has recognized, in 1951, the United States Supreme Court held in Spector Motor Service v. O'Connor , 340 U.S. 602, 71 S.Ct. 508, 95 L.Ed. 573 (1951), that a corporate excise tax could not be imposed constitutionally "on the activities of foreign corporations within its boundaries, if such activities were purely interstate." Cal-Roof Wholesale v. Tax Com. , 242 Or. 435, 440-41, 410 P.2d 233 (1966). This court also explained, however, that the same tax, had it been an income tax, would have been constitutional. See id. at 440, 410 P.2d 233 (describing the effect of Spector Motor ). The legislature responded to Spector Motor by enacting the corporate income tax in 1955, adding it to the corporate excise tax so that Oregon could tax income that might otherwise escape state taxation. Cal-Roof Wholesale .

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Bluebook (online)
423 P.3d 80, 363 Or. 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/capital-one-auto-fin-inc-v-dept-of-revenue-or-2018.