Commonwealth v. Benjamin Franklin Hotel Co.

28 Pa. D. & C.2d 329, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 13
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedMarch 13, 1961
Docketno. 207, Commonwealth docket, 1960
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 28 Pa. D. & C.2d 329 (Commonwealth v. Benjamin Franklin Hotel 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. Benjamin Franklin Hotel Co., 28 Pa. D. & C.2d 329, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 13 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1961).

Opinion

Neely, P. J.,

This matter is here on appeal from the decision of the Board of Finance and Revenue upholding the action of the Department of Revenue, acting through its Sales Tax Board of Review, in making a use tax assessment against defendant taxpayer under the provisions of the Selective Sales and Use Tax Act of March 6, 1956, P. L. 1228, as amended May 24, 1956, P. L. 1707, 72 PS §3403-1, et seq.1 The tax was assessed for the period March 7, 1956, to February 28,1958.

[330]*330The parties have stipulated the facts and agreed to try this case without a jury, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of April 22, 1874, P. L. 109, as amended, 12 PS §688. We adopt their stipulation and incorporate the same herein by reference, and also herein set forth our own pertinent

Findings of Fact

1. Defendant is engaged in the operation of a hotel at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia.

2. A notice of assessment for understatement of sales and use tax for the period March 7, 1956, to February 28, 1958, under the Act of March 6, 1956, P. L. 1228, as amended, was mailed to defendant on June 13, 1958, indicating additional sales tax due of $2,865.25, and additional use tax due of $7,491.87, for a total tax assessment of $10,357.12, plus additions and penalties of $129.83, and interest of $747.00, making a total assessment of $11,234.47.

3. A petition for reassessment was filed in the Department of Revenue with its Sales Tax Board of Review on October 11, 1958, and that board, by decision dated October 13, 1959, reduced the sales tax assessment to $2,177.63, and the use tax assessment to $2,896.46. A notice of this decision was mailed to defendant taxpayer on November 25, 1959.

4. A petition for review was filed with the Board of Finance and Revenue on January 19, 1960, and on April 12, 1960, that board sustained the decision of the Sales Tax Board of Review.

5. On May 10,1960, defendant paid all the sales tax due in the amount of $2,177.63, and paid also $790.98 of the use tax then due, leaving a balance of $2,105.48 unpaid on account of the use tax.

6. This unpaid balance relates to the use tax on certain television sets, air conditioners and upholstery fabrics purchased by defendant for use in its hotel [331]*331business and for which defendant had claimed exemption before the administrative officials.

7. The use tax of $135.56, relating to the upholstery fabrics, is no longer contested by defendant, leaving the amount of $1,969.92 as the amount of tax that is now being contested.

8. In the regular course of defendant’s hotel business, defendant charges its guests for the use of rooms. Charges are made on a day-to-day basis, and the guests agree to pay the rates specified by the hotel, which entitle the guests to the use of the room and all the furnishings contained therein for the term of the guests’ occupancy.

9. Included in the furnishings are television sets. In each room there is a heating or cooling unit, providing ■ heat and air conditioning for the room. Whenever this ’ unit, which is permanently attached to the building, is out of order a window air conditioner may be temporarily placed in the room when desired. These temporary replacement air conditioners are involved in this controversy.

10. Included in the use tax assessment was tax at. the rate of three percent upon payments for the following items:

Description

Payee of Item Payments Tax Franklin Television

Television sets $64,589.03 $1,937.67 Philco Window air

Corporation conditioners 1,075.00 32.25

Total $65,664.03 $1,969.92

11.Each of the above items of property was purchased by defendant exclusively for use in rooms to be rented to guests. There is a television set in each of the guest rooms in the hotel. None of the television sets are of the “coin operated” type. There is no stated [332]*332charge made on the guests’ bills by defendant for the television sets, air conditioners, or for the use of any of the furnishings in the rooms.

Discussion

The imposition section (§201) of the Act of March 6,1956, and the same section in the amendatory Act of May 24, 1956, both provide that on and after March 7, 1956, there is “imposed upon the use ... of tangible personal property ... a tax of three per cent of the purchase price.” And “tangible personal property” in section 2 (L) of both of these acts is defined to include:

“(4) Furnishings, appliances, supplies, fittings, ornaments, furniture, equipment and accessories for home, business, industrial or commercial use, for indoor or outdoor purposes; . . .
“(16) Radios, television receiving sets ...”

Defendant contends that these television sets and air conditioners were purchased from the suppliers,2 payees in our findings, for the purpose of resale. It is defendant’s contention that the rental of rooms containing these television sets and air conditioners amounted to a resale of the items; that defendant purchased these items for such resale, and that these purchases were not then subject to the use tax, since under the Act of 1956, as in that year amended, “purchase at retail,” section 2(e), “shall not include any acquisition for the purpose of resale.”

If the daily room charges to guests amounted to a resale of these items, then defendant’s purchases would not be a “purchase at retail” and the imposition of the tax would not apply, since the use tax was imposed only on “tangible personal property purchased at retail”: section 201 of the 1956 Acts.

[333]*333This brings us to the meaning of the definition of “resale” in the Act of 1956, as in that year amended, section 2(h), which reads as follows:

“(1) Any transfer of ownership, custody or possession of tangible personal property for a consideration, including the grant of a license to use or consume and transactions where the possession of such property is transferred but where the transferor retains title only as security for payment of the selling price whether such transaction be designated as bailment lease, conditional sale or otherwise.”

It will be noted that under this definition, a “resale” under the Act of 1956 is described as a “transfer for a consideration.” The question here is whether any consideration passed to defendant for these particular items as distinguished from charges for the occupancy of the rooms. We think in principle this question has recently been before this court and the decision, cited herein, was adverse to the contention which the defendant makes in this case.

In Commonwealth v. McHugh, 75 Dauph. 68 (1960), defendant had certain contracts for furnishing and installing water mains and connections in the City of Philadelphia, and upon completion of the contracts these facilities were to become part of the city’s existing underground water system. The taxpayer contended that the materials used by the contractor in this construction were purchased for resale and not subject to use tax.

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Related

Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc. v. State Tax Commission
376 N.E.2d 568 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
28 Pa. D. & C.2d 329, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-benjamin-franklin-hotel-co-pactcompldauphi-1961.