Colgate-Palmolive Co. v. Florida Department of Revenue

988 So. 2d 1212, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 15295, 2008 WL 3850294
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 20, 2008
DocketNo. 1D07-1051
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 988 So. 2d 1212 (Colgate-Palmolive Co. v. Florida Department of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colgate-Palmolive Co. v. Florida Department of Revenue, 988 So. 2d 1212, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 15295, 2008 WL 3850294 (Fla. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

WOLF, J.

We deny appellant’s motion for rehearing, but we withdraw this court’s previous opinion and substitute the corrected opinion to correct a sentence, which appears on page 7 of the original opinion. The corrected sentence reads as follows:

Unlike Iowa, Florida does allow a business to subtract its foreign tax credit dividends from its income calculation while limiting the credit’s subtraction’s use to the year in which it-is those dividends are received, rather than allowing the credit subtraction to be carried into the next year, as the federal government allows.

CORRECTED OPINION

The issue before this court is whether Florida’s limitation of net operating loss carryovers to federal net losses under section 172 of the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) improperly discriminates against foreign corporate dividends. We determine it does not and affirm the decision of the Department of Revenue (Department).

This case involves no issues of material fact. The entire dispute rests on an interpretation of the Foreign Commerce Clause as it applies to discrimination between domestic and foreign subsidiaries affected by Florida’s taxing scheme. Appellant manufactures and markets its products on a national and worldwide basis. Because of its foreign business dealings, appellant has several foreign subsidiary companies which contribute significantly to its sales and net income and pay large amounts of foreign dividends back to it.1

[1214]*1214Foreign countries many times tax the income of the foreign subsidiary paying the dividends; thus, the United States allows for companies to offset those taxes in one of two ways. The companies may either (1) take a foreign tax credit based on foreign taxes paid to foreign governments by the foreign subsidiaries, using a percentage of the dividends paid by those subsidiaries to the domestic parent corporation pursuant to sections 901 and 902 of the I.R.C., or (2) deduct the foreign taxes paid from their federal taxable income pursuant to section 164 of the I.R.C. This is to keep money received from the foreign subsidiaries from being taxed twice.

However, while similar double taxation may occur domestically, the federal government chooses to offer only one method to offset domestic taxes paid to the individual states. Namely, the federal government allows corporations to deduct a portion of domestic dividends paid depending on their qualifying status, as those dividends are likely generated from subsidiaries whose income has already been taxed locally, but it does not offer a domestic tax credit. If a party chooses to deduct the foreign tax amount from its taxable income, that deduction is treated similarly to the deduction of dividends from domestic corporations. Specifically, both are deducted and may result in a net operating loss at the federal level. The federal government, as well as Florida, allows these operating losses to be carried over to subsequent years.

Corporations doing business in Florida are subject to both a federal corporate income tax and a Florida corporate income tax. If a corporation chooses the federal deduction method, Florida uses the federal taxable income as its starting point and treats carryover losses in a similar fashion to the federal system. See § 220.13, Fla. Stat. (2004).

Section 220.13(1), Florida Statutes (2004), discusses subtractions to the calculated corporate income and states, in pertinent part:

(b) Subtractions.—
1. There shall be subtracted from such taxable income:
a. The net operating loss deduction allowable for federal income tax purposes under s. 172 of the Internal Revenue Code for the taxable year,
b. The net capital loss allowable for federal income tax purposes under s. 1212 of the Internal Revenue Code for the taxable year,
[[Image here]]
However, a net operating loss and a capital loss shall never be carried back as a deduction to a prior taxable year, but all deductions attributable to such losses shall be deemed net operating loss carryovers and capital loss carryovers, respectively, and treated in the same manner, to the same extent, and for the same time periods as are prescribed for such carryovers in ss. 172 and 1212, respectively, of the Internal Revenue Code.
2. There shall be subtracted from such taxable income any amount to the extent included therein the following:
a. Dividends treated as received from sources without the United States, as determined under s. 862 of the Internal Revenue Code.
b. All amounts included in taxable income under s.78 or s. 951 of the Internal Revenue Code.2

(Emphasis added).

Appellant asserts that, because losses created by domestic dividend deduc[1215]*1215tions can always be carried over while the foreign tax credit, calculated through the payment of foreign dividends, cannot be carried over, discrimination between domestic and foreign dividends necessarily results. This argument specifically relies on two federal constitutional provisions. First, the Federal Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution) provides that Congress shall have the power “[t]o regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” Further, the Equal Protection Clause (Amendment XIV, Section 1) states that “[n]o State shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The United States Supreme Court has read these provisions collectively to prohibit a state taxing statute from discriminating between foreign and domestic commerce and has noted the following relevant factors to be considered when addressing a Foreign Commerce Clause claim:

1. whether the tax is applied to an activity with a substantial nexus with the taxing state;
2. whether the tax is fairly apportioned;
3. whether the tax is non-discriminatory;
4. whether the tax is fairly related to the services provided;
5. whether the tax creates a substantial risk of international multiple taxation; and
6. whether the tax prevents the federal government from speaking with one voice when regulating commercial relations with foreign governments.

See Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U.S. 274, 279, 97 S.Ct. 1076, 51 L.Ed.2d 326 (1977) (considering and adopting factors 1-4); Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles, 441 U.S. 434, 451, 99 S.Ct. 1813, 60 L.Ed.2d 336 (1979) (considering and adopting factors 5-6).

In the instant case, appellant relies on the “discrimination” factor of the above stated test. In Kraft General Foods, Inc. v. Iowa Department of Revenue & Finance,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Directv, Inc., etc. v. State of Florida, Dept. of Revenue
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015
World Fuel Services Corp. v. Florida Department of Revenue
23 So. 3d 1293 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
988 So. 2d 1212, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 15295, 2008 WL 3850294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colgate-palmolive-co-v-florida-department-of-revenue-fladistctapp-2008.