Clinton Shirt Corp. v. Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals

583 S.W.2d 84, 1978 Ky. App. LEXIS 679
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedNovember 3, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 583 S.W.2d 84 (Clinton Shirt Corp. v. Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clinton Shirt Corp. v. Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals, 583 S.W.2d 84, 1978 Ky. App. LEXIS 679 (Ky. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinions

HAYES, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of the Franklin Circuit Court which affirmed the order of the Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals, which in turn affirmed a ruling of the Kentucky Department of Revenue, assessing the appellant additional corporation income taxes in the amount of $25,617.44 and corporation license tax in the amount of $1,291.02 for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1967 through September 30, 1970.

The Kentucky Department of Revenue had determined that Clinton was doing business solely in Kentucky and therefore KRS 141.010(14)(a) was applied to Clinton’s taxable net income.

Clinton contends that its business activity was partly in Kentucky and partly in New York, and therefore, KRS 141.120(2) should have been applied by the Department of Revenue.

The Board of Tax Appeals found the following facts from the evidentiary hearing before it:

Clinton Shirt Corporation (“Clinton”) is a manufacturing company with a plant located in Clinton, Kentucky, engaged principally in the manufacturing of girls’ clothes. Clinton was incorporated in New York in 1961 and all of its stock is owned by its parent, Garan, Inc. (“Gar-an”). Garan started out as a manufacturing company and, as its business expanded and new facilities were opened, each facility was incorporated as a separate corporation with Garan, as the parent corporation, owning all the stock of each subsidiary corporation. During the period in question, Garan owned all the stock of 18 such subsidiary corporations. Garan’s officers are also the officers of Clinton and all the other subsidiaries.
Offices are maintained in the Empire State Building in New York City for the officers and management of Garan, who are also the officers of the subsidiaries. Clinton’s name appears on the building directory, however, the lease for the office space is held by Garan and Garan pays the rent to the landlord. Besides the officers of Garan, there are in New York designers, production personnel, sales personnel and office personnel who design and sell and are concerned with the products manufactured by Garan and its subsidiaries. All of the employees in the New York office, including corporate officers, are paid with checks drawn upon Garan. Employee benefits for New York employees are established in Garan’s name; taxes are withheld and social security contributions are reported for these employees in Garan’s name.
Sales of the products of Garan and its subsidiaries are made by salesmen in the New York Office. Salesmen who sell Clinton products also sell the products of other subsidiaries within the same manufacturing “division” and are not limited to selling products manufactured only by Clinton. All salesmen are paid with checks from Garan. All of the cash resulting from sales of the products of Gar-an and its subsidiaries is deposited in one bank account; credit checks of new customers are conducted by the New York credit department which conducts credit checks for all the subsidiary corporations.
With the exception of some samples of [sic] New York, the bulk of Clinton’s inventory is located in Kentucky. Clinton’s products are shipped directly from the plant in Clinton, Kentucky to the customer. Also, goods purchased by Clinton are shipped directly to Clinton at Clinton Kentucky.
Through entries on company ledgers, Garan charges Clinton and its other subsidiaries for an allocated portion of the office rent and salaries of the officers and other New York office personnel who are paid by Garan. Also, sales are credited to each of the subsidiaries through a ledger entry.
[86]*86Based upon the foregoing, we conclude that the New York office is maintained and controlled by Garan, Inc. and not by Clinton Shirt Corporation. Clinton is merely charged, by means of a ledger entry, with an allocated portion of the costs of maintaining its office. Furthermore, the appellant did not offer proof that Clinton had activities other than those activities which it contends were carried on in New York. Thus, since the New York office was not being maintained and controlled by Clinton, and no proof was offered that Clinton was doing business in any state other than New York and Kentucky, we conclude that Clinton Shirt Corporation was doing business solely in Kentucky.

The Board then concluded that taxable net income in the ease of Clinton Shirt Corporation is defined by the provision of KRS 141.010(14)(a) because Clinton owns or leases no property outside Kentucky; has no payroll outside Kentucky; and, the New York office is not maintained and controlled by Clinton. The Board applied the rule in Luckett v. Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., Ky., 336 S.W.2d 584 (1960). The Board reasoned that since KRS 141.010(14)(a) applied therefore there could be no allocation and apportionment under KRS 141.120.

An appeal from a Board of Tax Appeals ruling to the circuit court is governed by KRS 131.370(3), which states:

(3) No new or additional evidence may be introduced in the circuit court except as to the fraud or misconduct of some person engaged in the administration of the revenue laws and affecting the order, ruling or award, but the court shall otherwise hear the cause upon the record as certified by the board and shall dispose of the cause in summary manner, its review being limited to determining whether or not:
(a) The board acted without or in excess of its powers;
(b) The order, decision, or award was procured by fraud;
(c) The order, decision, or award is not in conformity to the law; and
(d)If findings of fact are in issue, whether such findings of fact support the order, decision or award.

Obviously, (a) and (b) do not apply here, and, after reviewing the transcript of evidence, we are of the opinion that (d) does not apply, in as much as the finding of facts by the Board is supported by substantial evidence. Trimble County Board of Supervisors v. Mullikin, Ky., 438 S.W.2d 524 (1968).

There remains the question of whether the decision of the Board is in conformity to the law.

The trial court found, and we agree, that the Board correctly applied the Luck-ett, supra, case. In that case it was determined that to avoid allocation of out-of-state sales to Kentucky, the taxpayer must not only negotiate the sales outside Kentucky, but must in addition thereto, negotiate. them from offices, agencies and places of business maintained and controlled by the taxpayers outside of the state.

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Related

Goldberg v. State Tax Commission
639 S.W.2d 796 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
583 S.W.2d 84, 1978 Ky. App. LEXIS 679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clinton-shirt-corp-v-kentucky-board-of-tax-appeals-kyctapp-1978.