City of Tucson v. Tucson Hotel Equity Ltd. Partnership

2 P.3d 110, 196 Ariz. 551, 320 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 74, 2000 Ariz. App. LEXIS 60
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedApril 25, 2000
DocketNo. 1 CA-TX 99-0016
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2 P.3d 110 (City of Tucson v. Tucson Hotel Equity Ltd. Partnership) 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
City of Tucson v. Tucson Hotel Equity Ltd. Partnership, 2 P.3d 110, 196 Ariz. 551, 320 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 74, 2000 Ariz. App. LEXIS 60 (Ark. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

GERBER, Judge

¶ 1 Tucson Hotel Equity Limited Partnership dba Doubletree Inn (Doubletree) appeals from summary judgment for the City of Tucson (City) on Doubletree’s claim to recover refunds of the City’s business privilege taxes under the telecommunications and transient rental classifications. The appeal presents these issues:

1. Whether Doubletree was entitled to refunds of excess taxes paid on receipts from facsimile services mistakenly reported as taxable at 4% rather than 2% and on non-taxable laundry services mistakenly reported as taxable at 4%;
2. Whether that portion of Doubletree’s gross business receipts represented by the difference between Doubletree’s guest charges for interstate long distance calls and its own costs for those calls is taxable under the telecommunication services classification defined by Tucson City Code section 19-470; and
3. If the answer to issue 2 is yes, whether Arizona law nevertheless precludes imposition of the Tucson telecommunication services tax on those amounts.

We have appellate jurisdiction under A.R.S. § 12-2101(B) (1994).

FACTS AND RELEVANT PROCEDURE

¶ 2 Doubletree operates a hotel in Tucson. Among the guest services that Doubletree provides are interstate telephone calls from guests’ rooms, facsimile transmissions, and laundry services.

¶ 3 During the audit period beginning August 1, 1992, through July 31, 1996, Double-tree marked up its charges for laundry and facsimile services by 9.5%, which corresponded to the state and city transient rental taxes of 5.5% and 4.0% respectively. Doubletree’s guest bills showed the marked-up total for each service without separating charges for taxes.

¶ 4 Doubletree charged its guests a single amount for each interstate long distance telephone call made from their rooms during the audit period. In essence, Doubletree marked up its own cost for each interstate call by 50%, added a further mark-up if applicable, and then added 8% to the grand total for the purpose of passing through to the guest the state (5%) and federal (3%) telecommunications excises for which Doubletree was liable.1 Doubletree’s guests paid no telecommunication fees or taxes to Doubletree or to other telecommunication providers aside from the fees and taxes incorporated into Doubletree’s single-amount charges for interstate calls.

[553]*553¶ 5 From August 1, 1992, through July 31, 1996, Doubletree mistakenly reported its gross revenues from telecommunications, facsimile, and laundry services to the City under the “transient rental” classification, on which the tax rate was 4%. Laundry services were in fact non-taxable, and the rate for facsimile transmissions and other telecommunication services was 2%.

¶ 6 Doubletree asked the City to refund the full amount of taxes it had paid on its receipts from guests’ interstate telephone calls during the audit period. When the City audited Doubletree’s records for that period, the audit determined that Doubletree was liable for tax on its receipts from interstate calls at the rate of 2% rather than 4%. The City accordingly credited Doubletree with $18,590.84, half the sum it had paid on those calls under the transient rental classification. The audit also determined that Doubletree was not entitled to a refund of any excess taxes it had paid on facsimile transmission and laundry charges because it had collected those excess taxes from its guests.

¶ 7 Doubletree protested the audit results. The City’s hearing officer sustained the audit’s determination that Doubletree was not entitled to a refund of excess taxes, but reversed its finding that Doubletree’s receipts from guests’ interstate calls were taxable under the telecommunication services classification.

¶ 8 The City appealed the hearing officer’s ruling to the tax court. Doubletree counterclaimed for relief from the hearing officer’s determination that the excess taxes it paid on facsimile and laundry services were non-refundable. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the tax court ruled for the City on both claims. Doubletree timely appealed.

ANALYSIS

Doubletree’s Claim for Refunds of Excess Taxes

¶ 9 Tucson City Code (“T.C.C.”) section 19-250(a)(l), entitled “Remittance of all tax charged and/or collected,” provides that a taxpayer who collects city taxes from a customer in excess of the amount actually due must remit the excess to the city tax collector. Tucson City Code Reg. 19-250.1 provides:

If a taxpayer collects taxes in excess of the combined tax from any customer in any transaction, all such excess tax shall be paid to the taxing jurisdictions in proportion to their effective rates. The right* of the taxpayer to charge his customer for his own liability for tax does not allow the taxpayer to enrich himself at the cost of his customers.

¶ 10 Although Doubletree does not deny that it calculated its charges for facsimile and laundry charges during the audit period by adding a percentage component representing the tax rates it thought were applicable, it points out that it charges its customers a single amount for each service without a separate or additional charge for taxes. Doubletree contends that a merchant cannot be said to “collect” tax from its customer unless “the person from whom the monies are being collected knows, or at least believes, that that which is being collected is a tax.” Doubletree argues that a tax can thus be deemed collected only when a separately stated “added charge” is made.

¶ 11 Doubletree cites no authority that supports this analysis and we do not agree with it. T.C.C. section 19-250(a)(l) and Reg. 19-250.1 seek to prevent merchants from “profiting at the expense of the purchaser under the guise of a compulsory tax.” Arizona State Tax Comm’n v. Garrett Corp., 79 Ariz. 389, 393, 291 P.2d 208, 210 (1955). Under Doubletree’s analysis, merchants could evade that policy merely by concealing from their customers that they were passing along any taxes at all.

¶ 12 By factoring taxes into its single-amount charges for facsimile and laundry services and then requiring its customers to pay those charges, Doubletree “collected” those taxes whether its customers knew it or not. T.C.C. section 19-250(a)(l) required Doubletree to remit the taxes to the City. The tax court correctly held that Doubletree was not entitled to get them back.

Taxability of Doubletree’s Long Distance “Mark-Up” Under T.C.C. Section 19-470

¶ 13 The City determined that Doubletree’s gross receipts from its guests’ inter[554]*554state calls, less Doubletree’s own costs for each call, were taxable under the telecommunication services classification, T.C.C. section 19-470. The City’s theory was that these mark-ups constituted charges for connection and access to a telecommunications system or network, which section 19 — 470(a)(2)(a) and (c) expressly included within taxable gross income from telecommunication services.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 P.3d 110, 196 Ariz. 551, 320 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 74, 2000 Ariz. App. LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-tucson-v-tucson-hotel-equity-ltd-partnership-arizctapp-2000.