Dept. of Revenue v. Quotron Systems, Inc.

615 So. 2d 774, 1993 Fla. App. LEXIS 2461, 1993 WL 62206
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 9, 1993
Docket92-2156
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 615 So. 2d 774 (Dept. of Revenue v. Quotron Systems, Inc.) 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
Dept. of Revenue v. Quotron Systems, Inc., 615 So. 2d 774, 1993 Fla. App. LEXIS 2461, 1993 WL 62206 (Fla. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

615 So.2d 774 (1993)

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellant,
v.
QUOTRON SYSTEMS, INC., etc., Appellee.

No. 92-2156.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

March 9, 1993.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Lealand L. McCharen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellant.

Thomson, Muraro, Razook & Hart, Carol A. Licko and Richard Razook, Miami, for appellee.

Holland & Knight, James M. Ervin, Jr., Susan L. Turner and Cheridah V. Roberts, Tallahassee, for Intern. Business Machines, Inc., as amici curiae.

Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and BASKIN and GERSTEN, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

The judgment below is affirmed on the basis of the comprehensive decision of the trial court which is set out in the appendix. Accord Henley Holding's Inc. v. Department of Revenue, No. 89-4381 (Fla. 2d Cir.Ct. July 22, 1991), aff'd, 599 So.2d 1282 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992).

APPENDIX

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

The Final Assessment

1. This action arises from the Notice of Proposed Assessment dated May 4, 1990 (the "Final Assessment"), issued by the Defendant Florida Department of Revenue (the "Department") to Plaintiff Quotron Systems, Inc. ("Quotron"). The Final Assessment refers to the four-year audit period from July 1, 1985 through May 31, 1989 ("Audit Period"), and reflects a balance of $3,827,300.27 allegedly due for unpaid sales taxes, plus penalties and interest through May 2, 1990. Interest on the Final Assessment accrues at the rate of $812.31 per day.

The Department's Claims

2. The Department claims Quotron owes sales taxes during the Audit Period and in accordance with the Final Assessment based upon two alternative arguments: first, the Department claims Quotron's transmission of electronic images to the video display screens of its Florida subscribers constitutes a "sale" of "tangible personal property" within the definitions provided by Section 212.02(12), Florida Statutes. That statute provides, in pertinent *775 part, that "tangible personal property means and includes personal property which may be seen, weighed, measured or touched or is in any manner perceptible to the senses, including electric power or energy... ." The Department maintains Quotron was selling "images" which could be "seen" on the subscriber's terminals. In the Department's view, because those images of data and text were thus "perceptible to the senses," the amounts charged by Quotron for its services was taxable.

3. Alternatively, the Department asserts the equipment provided to some (not all) Florida subscribers or otherwise used as a vehicle to receive the electronic images constitutes a "rental" of "tangible personal property" in connection with "services," and thus, relying upon the definition of "sales price" in Section 212.02(17), subjects all the charges by Quotron to sales tax. With respect to the subscribers who did not use Quotron's equipment, the Department alleges the very fact that equipment is used in the delivery of the service constitutes a "rental" of property, subjecting the entire transaction to sales tax.

Quoton's Financial Services

4. The undisputed record shows Quotron provides high-speed electronic delivery of various financial news and information to its subscribers via display on video screens. Quotron's Florida subscribers primarily include banks, stock brokerage firms, fund managers and institutions investing in financial markets.

5. Subscribers execute separate agreements with the actual owners of the financial information (for example, the national stock exchanges) regarding the subscribers' use of such information. Subscribers are billed separately by the owners of the information (the stock exchanges) for the information they receive via Quotron's integrated electronic delivery system.

6. Although portions of the information displayed on the video screen can be printed, at the subscriber's option, there are no records available to indicate how often or when, if at all, this print option is used. Quotron does not separately sell information in printed form or provide information duplication services resulting in printed, mimeographed, multigraphed, or other duplicated matter.

7. The technology employed by Quotron to display such exchange news and data on desk top terminals at the customers' offices was developed and came into commercial use during the 1960's, over ten years after the Florida Legislature adopted the sales tax statutes and definitions relied upon by the Department in its attempt to tax Quotron's financial services as "tangible personal property."

Quotron's Equipment

8. Quotron uses certain integrated equipment to deliver its services, and the Department points to this fact as support for its argument that Quotron is "renting" such equipment to its subscribers. However, the record shows that, at most some of Quotron's subscribers had access to one piece of equipment only: the dumb video terminals that display the images constituting the news. None of Quotron's customers had possession or control over the physical operation of the central processing unit (the "CPU") and related equipment, which are the most important pieces of equipment associated with Quotron's financial services. The record shows the CPU is kept in locked rooms generally located off the subscriber's premises. Quotron reserves the right to replace or remove the CPU at any time, and provides the technical and engineering and other support to keep the CPU operating. Quotron also insures all of its equipment, including the CPU and has the contractual responsibility to maintain the equipment; at the termination of the services agreement with the subscriber, Quotron immediately removes the equipment. The record further shows the equipment has no other significant independent value other than its use in connection with the delivery of Quotron's financial services.

9. Quotron's method of determining its total charges for its financial services was based upon the subscriber's usage of the financial services, not upon a "rental" of the equipment; thus, the undisputed record *776 shows there were no significant differences as to charges by Quotron between the customer who supplied his own video desk units and the customer who used Quotron's equipment. Quotron's method of charging for the equipment did not reflect an intent on the part of Quotron to receive a fair rental for the equipment being used.

10. The Department has argued here that Quotron's provision of certain equipment subjects all charges for Quotron's financial services to sales tax. The Department did not assert this argument in Henley Holdings. See also, TAA # 89A-027. The result is an attempt to treat similarly situated companies differently.

Quotron's Payment of the Sales Tax on Its Servies in 1987

11. Prior to 1987, there was not "clear and unambiguous" assertion by the Department that services such as Quotron's were subject to sales tax, and in fact the Department indicated otherwise in various responses to requests for technical assistance.

12. In 1987, pursuant to the sales tax on services adopted by the Florida Legislature, the Department in turn adopted rules classifying services such as Quotron's as taxable electronic services.

13. Quotron paid all taxes due pursuant to the short-lived sales tax on services.

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