Dana Corp. v. Limbach

573 N.E.2d 39, 60 Ohio St. 3d 26, 1991 Ohio LEXIS 1119
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMay 22, 1991
DocketNo. 90-730
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 573 N.E.2d 39 (Dana Corp. v. Limbach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dana Corp. v. Limbach, 573 N.E.2d 39, 60 Ohio St. 3d 26, 1991 Ohio LEXIS 1119 (Ohio 1991).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

We hold that the BTA’s decision on the foreign income deductions was reasonable and lawful and, thus, affirm it. However, we hold that Dana failed to specify error concerning deducting property of financial institutions and insurance companies from its net worth property fraction in its notice of appeal filed with the BTA. Consequently, we reverse this aspect of the BTA’s decision.

I. Foreign Income Deduction

R.C. 5733.04(1) defines “net income” for the franchise tax as:

“* * * [T]he taxpayer’s taxable income before operating loss deduction and special deductions, as required to be reported for the taxpayer’s taxable year under the Internal Revenue Code, subject to the following adjustments:

“(2) Deduct any amount included in net income by application of section 78 or 951 of the Internal Revenue Code, amounts received for royalties, technical or other services derived from sources outside the United States, and dividends received from a subsidiary, associate, or affiliated corporation that neither transacts any substantial portion of its business nor regularly maintains any substantial portion of its assets within the United States[.]”

The commissioner argues that her use of the Form 1118 expenses to determine net foreign income is presumptively valid and that Dana faked to demonstrate otherwise. Dana responds that it should not follow the federal methodology because the resulting expense amounts are not derived in a “comparable context” to the franchise tax and that it should deduct only directly related expenses. It also argues that the record contains sufficient, probative evidence to sustain the BTA’s finding on the directly related expenses Dana seeks to deduct.

R.C. 5733.04(I)(2) permits a taxpayer to “[d]educt any amount included in net income” received from specified foreign sources. In Westinghouse Elec. Corp. v. Lindley (1979), 58 Ohio St. 2d 137, 140-142, 12 O.O. 3d 158, 160-161, 389 N.E. 2d 473, 475-476, we held that the amount Westinghouse could deduct was a net amount, in that case net royalties, because Westinghouse’s federal taxable income included only this net amount. We did not there require this amount to be calculated as in the federal credit limit, and we do not here find the calculations underlying the federal credit helpful. Today, we announce how to ascertain this net amount.

Section 61, Title 26, U.S. Code defines “gross income,” the starting [28]*28point in determining taxable income, to include foreign income. However, Section 901, Title 26, U.S. Code allows a taxpayer to credit amounts paid in taxes to foreign countries against the federal income tax. Section 904, Title 26, U.S. Code limits this credit to what would be paid if the income were subject to federal income tax. To determine the credit limit, the taxpayer applies the ratio of foreign taxable income divided by total taxable income to the federal tax against which the credit will be taken.

Section 862(b), Title 26, U.S. Code determines foreign taxable income by subtracting expenses apportioned and allocated to the foreign source from foreign gross income. Treasury Reg. 1.861-8 provides for calculating such expenses. “These regulations mandate a process of ‘allocating’ specific related expenses to items of income and ‘apportioning’ other less clearly related expenses to such income.” 12 Mertens, Law of Federal Income Taxation (1987), Chapter 45.3, Section 45-3.03, at 9.

Lower foreign expenses for the Ohio franchise tax results in greater foreign net income and a greater deduction from Ohio net income. On the other hand, attributing greater amounts to foreign expenses results in greater Ohio franchise tax because it decreases the deduction.

Furthermore, in computing the tax credit limit, the federal regulations deduct ratably apportioned expenses that presume the taxpayer incurred them to generate the foreign income, despite any connection with the foreign income. For example, the federal regulations require Dana to deduct from foreign income a portion of charitable contributions paid entirely to United States charities. These contributions could not have generated foreign income.

The context of Ohio’s franchise tax here is to ascertain the amount of foreign income included in Ohio net income, not to compute a tax credit limit. As noted, Dana, in fact, had no reason to challenge the expenses for the federal tax. Moreover, a taxpayer calculates the federal limit with patently unassociated expenses. Therefore, we rule that the Form 1118 expense calculations arise in a different context than the franchise tax foreign net income deduction and that the calculations do not result in the amount included in Ohio net income.

However, we find guidance for ascertaining the amount of foreign income included in Ohio net income in Financial Accounting Standards Board, Accounting Standards (1982), Statement No. 14, which “establishes disclosure requirements that are intended to provide information concerning the extent to which an enterprise * * * operates within foreign countries * * *.” Collins & Spoede, Financial Accounting Standards Practice Update (1983) 14-2. The statement requires a disclosure of a measure of profitability for foreign operations, such as operating profit or net income. Statement No. 14, supra, at 918, paragraph 35b. The most popular measure is operating profit or loss as calculated for industry segments. Collins & Spoede, supra, at 14-20. For this, the statement refers to the definition of “operating profit or loss,” as explained by Collins & Spoede:

“The operating profit or loss of an industry segment is its revenue minus its operating expenses * * *. The following items are specifically excluded from the determination of an industry segment’s operating profit or loss:

“1. Revenue earned at that corporate level and not derived from the operations of any industry segment [29]*29(e.g., gains and losses on sales of marketable securities).

“2. General corporate expenses that relate to the enterprise’s central administrative function (e.g., corporate officers’ salaries and general legal costs).

“3. Interest expense (unless the segment’s operations are financial in nature, e.g., banking, insurance, leasing or financing).

“4. Domestic and foreign income taxes.

“5. Equity in income or loss of unconsolidated subsidiaries and other unconsolidated investees.

“6. Gain or loss on discontinued operations (as defined in APB Opinion No. 30).

“7. Extraordinary items.

“8. Minority interest.

“9. Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle.” (Emphasis sic.) Id. at 14-6 to 14-7; Statement No. 14, supra, at 913, paragraph lOd.

Furthermore, the statement defines “operating expenses” to be “* * * the sum of (1) expenses directly traceable to the industry segment (whether related to sales to unaffiliated customers or to intersegment sales), and (2) a reasonable allocation of expenses that benefit more than one industry segment (e.g., data processing costs). * * *” Collins & Spoede, at 14-6.

We approve and adopt this reasoning. Consequently, under R.C. 5733.04 (I)(2), a taxpayer may deduct from Ohio net income its operating profit from foreign operations.

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Bluebook (online)
573 N.E.2d 39, 60 Ohio St. 3d 26, 1991 Ohio LEXIS 1119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dana-corp-v-limbach-ohio-1991.