Commonwealth v. Curtis Publishing Co.

64 Pa. D. & C. 135, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 8
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedOctober 10, 1947
Docketno. 113
StatusPublished

This text of 64 Pa. D. & C. 135 (Commonwealth v. Curtis Publishing 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. Curtis Publishing Co., 64 Pa. D. & C. 135, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 8 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1947).

Opinion

Hargest, P. J.,

This case comes before us upon an appeal from the settlement of the corporate net income tax for the year 1942. A petition for resettlement and petition for review were each filed and refused, pursuant to sections 1102 and 1103 of the Fiscal Code of April 9,1929, P. L. 343; and this appeal taken pursuant to section 1104 of The Fiscal Code.

The question is whether, in making the settlement, there is an unconstitutional discrimination against the obligations of the United States to include, in the tax base, interest on the obligations of the United States issued after March 1, 1941, while the interest on State and municipal securities and dividends on corporate shares is excluded.

The facts have been agreed upon in a stipulation filed, and for the purposes of discussion we find the following:

1. Defendant, the Curtis Publishing Company, is a corporation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and during the year 1942 was engaged in business in the Commonwealth and subject to corporate net income tax under the Corporate Net Income Tax Act of May 16, 1935, P. L. 208, as reenacted and amended by the Corporate Net Income Tax Act of May 29, 1941, P. L. 62.

2. On April 5,1943, defendant filed its corporate net income tax report for the year 1942, indicating no tax due, and on November 3, 1943, it filed a “Report of Change” wherein it indicated that tax was due in the amount of $6,066.03.

[137]*1373. Settlement of the tax, based upon the original report and report of change, was made December 27, 1945, amounting to $6,367.67, which amount has been paid in full.

4. The tax in question was arrived at as follows:

1. Adjusted net income per “report of change” in income filed November 3, 1943, on which the settlement appealed from is based $1,033,923.16
2. Deductions allowed by Pennsylvania Corporate Net Income Tax Act
3. Federal taxes $149,644.11
4. Dividends 758,565.68 908,209.79
5. Net income tax base per settlement appealed from $125,713.37

Applying the three statutory allocation fractions to this net income resulted in net income taxable in Penm sylvania in the amount of $90,966.70, and the tax, at the rate of seven percent, amounted to $6,367.67.

5. The corporate net income tax report forms prepared by, and filed with the Commonwealth, for the years 1935,1936,1937, and 1938, incorporated certain portions of the Federal corporation income tax return forms exactly; said portions being the schedules used in arriving at “net income” under the Federal return. The “net income” figure thus adopted by the Commonwealth from the Federal return included interest on the portion of United States securities held by each taxpayer in cases where such interest' upon the entire amount of such securities held by the taxpayer was not exempt under acts of Congress from liability for Federal income tax.

6. Pursuant to a stipulation for judgment'filed in this court May 8, 1939, in the case of Commonwealth v. Philadelphia Felt Company, no. 624, Commonwealth docket, 1938, and pursuant to a ruling of the Department of Revenue issued June 28, 1939, any interest on United States securities included in the “net income” figure adopted from the Federal returns by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and used as the corporate [138]*138net income tax base, was deducted from such “net income” figure in acting upon petitions for resettlement of corporate net income tax accounts for the years 1935, 1936 and 1937, and in making original settlements of corporate net income tax accounts for the year 1938.

7. The corporate net income tax report forms prepared and filed with the Commonwealth for the years 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942, incorporated certain material from the Federal corporation income tax return forms in addition to that which had been incorporated in the Pennsylvania report forms for the years 1935 to 1938, inclusive. This additional portion consisted of the two lines used in the Federal forms for arriving at “adjusted net income”, and this “adjusted net income” was used by the Commonwealth as the base for computing the Pennsylvania tax.

8. For the years 1939 and 1940 the “adjusted net income” adopted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from the Federal forms represented a figure which excluded, all interest on United States securities which had been included in computing “net income”. For the years 1941 and 1942 the “adjusted net income” figure, derived from the Federal returns as the base for the Pennsylvania tax, included interest on virtually all United States securities issued on and after March 1,1941, although interest upon United States securities issued prior to that date was deducted from the net income in arriving at such “adjusted net income” figure.

9. The interest on United States securities issued on or after March 1, 1941, was included in “adjusted net income” under the Federal returns for the years 1941 and 1942 and thereafter. This was the result of the adoption, by the Congress of the United States, of the Public Debt Act of 1941, which provided that interest on such securities should be wholly subject to Federal income tax liability.

[139]*13910. During the years from 1935 to 1942, inclusive, interest on State and municipal securities was entirely exempt from Federal income tax liability and was not included in either gross or net income under the Federal returns.

11. During the year 1942 defendant received interest on State, municipal and foreign securities as follows :

Pennsylvania city, county, borough, etc. $19,256.25
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania securities 48,704.09
Republic of Panama securities 1,531.56
Total $69,491.90

This interest was entirely excluded from gross income, net income, and adjusted net income under the Federal return and was, therefore, not included in the figure of $125,713.37 used as the base in computing defendant’s 1942 corporate net income tax liability.

12. During the year 1942 defendant received interest on United States securities in the total amount of $76,251.05. Of this amount, $381.91 represented interest on securities which were wholly exempted from Federal income tax liability, and was therefore excluded from the gross income and adjusted net income under the Federal return; .and $479.52 represented interest on certain United States securities exempt from Federal normal income tax, but which was subject to Federal surtax. The latter item is excluded in the “net income” figure indicated in defendant’s 1942 Federal return. It was deducted in arriving at “adjusted net income”. These two items were excluded from the figure of $125,713.37 used by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a base for computing the 1942 corporate net income tax liability. The balance of the total amount of interest on United States securities received by defendant in 1942, amounting to $75,389.62, represented interest on United States securities issued on and after March 1, 1941, which, [140]

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Bluebook (online)
64 Pa. D. & C. 135, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-curtis-publishing-co-pactcompldauphi-1947.