Commonwealth v. Abrasive Co.

85 Pa. D. & C. 376, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 1
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedMay 23, 1949
DocketCommonwealth docket, 1944, no. 72
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 85 Pa. D. & C. 376 (Commonwealth v. Abrasive Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Abrasive Co., 85 Pa. D. & C. 376, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 1 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

Rupp, P. J.,

This is an appeal by defendant from the resettlement of corporate net in[377]*377come tax made against it for the calendar year 1940, in the amount of $18,577.08, and from the action of the Board of Finance and Revenue in refusing its petition for review.

Counsel stipulated to waive a jury trial.

At the hearing, certain documents relating to defendant’s corporate net income tax account for the period involved were identified and introduced in evidence, together with a stipulation of facts agreed to by the parties. From all the foregoing we make the following

Findings of Fact

1. Abrasive Company is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with offices in Philadelphia, Pa., and Chicago, 111.

2. Abrasive Company filed with the Department of Revenue a corporate net income tax report for the calendar year 1940 within the time provided by law, and a settlement based on the report was made by the Department of Revenue on July 31,1942, in the amount of $18,877.27, and approved by the Department of the Auditor General on August 7, 1942.

3. No petition for resettlement was filed within 90 days of the date of this settlement, as provided by law.

4. On March 9,1943, the Federal Bureau of Internal Revenue notified Abrasive Company that it had made a change in income.

5. Pursuant to such notification, on April 15, 1943, Abrasive Company filed with the Department of Revenue a report of change in corporate net income showing a reduction in income from $501,994.91 to $491,-553.91 and a reduction in net income to be allocated from $295,632.74 to $290,931.90.

6. The report of change filed by Abrasive Company also showed revisions in the wages and salaries and the [378]*378gross receipts fractions of the allocating formula, although these fractions, as reported in the original corporate net income tax report, were not affected by the Federal change in net income.

7. In resettling the tax against Abrasive Company based on the report of change, the taxing departments reduced the net income to be allocated from $295,632.74 to $290,931.90 and reduced the tax from $18,877.27 to $18,577.08, but made no change from the original settlement in the wages and salaries and the gross receipts fractions of the allocating formula.

8. On October 25, 1943, Abrasive Company filed a petition for review with the Board of Finance and Revenue, requesting that the revised fractions set forth in the report of change be used in the resettlement, which petition was refused on January 6, 1944.

9. Had the revised fractions set forth in the report of change been incorporated in the resettlement, the tax would have been reduced to $18,142.88, making the amount of tax in dispute $434.20.

Statute Involved

Section 7 of the Corporate Net Income Tax Act of May 16, 1935, P. L. 208, as variously reenacted and amended, reads, in part, as follows (72 PS §3420^) :

“(a) If the amount of the net income, as returned by any corporation to the Federal Government, is finally changed or corrected by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or by any other agency or court of the United States, such corporation, within thirty (30) days after the receipt of such final change or correction, shall make a corrected report, under oath or affirmation, to the department showing such finally changed or corrected net income, upon which the tax is required to be paid to the United States. In case a corporation fails to file a report of such correction, which results in an increase in net income within the [379]*379time prescribed, there shall be added to the tax, a penalty of five dollars ($5.00) for every day during which such corporation is in default, but the department may abate a,ny such penalty in whole or in part.

“(b) If, as a result of such final change or correction, there should be any change made in the amount of the net income of any corporation upon which tax is imposed by this act, the department shall have the power, and its duty shall be, to resettle such taxes. Wheneveí a resettlement shall have been made hereunder, the department shall resettle the account according to law, and shall credit or charge, as the case may be, the amount resulting from such resettlement upon the current accounts of the corporation with which it is made. The resettlement shall be subject to audit-and approval by the Department of the Auditor General, as in the case of original settlements, and in case of the failure of the two departments to agree, the resettlement shall be submitted to the Board of Finance and Revenue, as in the case of original settlements.” (Italics supplied.)

Section 8 of the act, as variously reenacted and amended, reads, in part, as follows (72 PS §3420h) :

“(b) Promptly after the date of any such settlement, the department shall send, by mail or otherwise, a copy thereof to such corporation. The tax imposed by this act shall be settled, resettled, and otherwise imposed and adjusted in the same manner, within the same periods of time, and right of resettlement, review, appeal, and refund, as provided by law in the case of capital stock and franchise taxes imposed upon corporations.”

Discussion

The question involved in this appeal is: If, under section 7 of the Corporate Net Income Tax Act, supra, a corporation files with the Department of Revenue a corrected report showing its corporate net income as [380]*380finally changed or corrected by the Federal Government, and also showing revisions in the fractions of the allocating formula, although the revisions in the fractions were not occasioned by the change in income, must a resettlement of the corporate net income tax against the corporation made pursuant to the report of change in income incorporate the revised fractions?

It is the contention of defendant that the provision in section 7 that a resettlement made pursuant to a report of change in net income is to be made “according to law” means that such a resettlement must be made according to the “substantive provisions of the Corporate Net Income Tax Act”, and therefore must incorporate any correction of the original report appearing in a report of change which is proper under the language of the act, whether or not the revision of the originaf report was brought about by the change in income.

Accordingly, it maintains that as set forth in the original report the wages and salaries and the gross receipts fractions of the allocating formula were erroneous, while as revised in the report of change the fractions are proper under the act; and that by failing to adopt the revised fractions in resettling the tax against defendant pursuant to the report of change, the taxing departments made a resettlement which is not “according to law”.

Obviously, defendant has confused a resettlement made pursuant to a report of change, as provided by section 7, with a resettlement' made pursuant to a petition for resettlement generally, as provided by section 8(6) of the act, supra.

A careful reading of section 7 reveals that the purpose of a report of change is to show the net income returned by a corporation as finally changed or corrected by the Federal Government; and that the resettlement provided for therein is to be made if, and [381]*381

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 Pa. D. & C. 376, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-abrasive-co-pactcompldauphi-1949.