Discount Tire Co. of Washington, Inc. v. Department of Revenue

85 P.3d 400, 121 Wash. App. 513, 2004 Wash. App. LEXIS 352
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 9, 2004
DocketNo. 28708-1-II
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 85 P.3d 400 (Discount Tire Co. of Washington, Inc. v. Department of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Discount Tire Co. of Washington, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 85 P.3d 400, 121 Wash. App. 513, 2004 Wash. App. LEXIS 352 (Wash. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

Hunt, C.J.

Discount lire Company of Washington appeals the trial court’s summary judgment in favor of the State of Washington Department of Revenue in Discount Tire’s tax refund action. Discount lire argues that the trial court erroneously interpreted WAC 458-20-108 to disallow credit it had previously taken for retail sales tax refunded to customers returning defective tires under an extended warranty, by allowing the Department to collect a second tax on the sale of new replacement tires.

We hold that (1) WAC 458-20-108 applies to Discount Tire’s refunds to customers for damaged or defective tires returned under the extended warranty and (2) therefore, Discount Tire is entitled to a tax credit for those refunds. We reverse.

FACTS

Discount lire sells, installs, and repairs automobile tires. Each tire sale triggers two excise taxes on the transaction: a business and occupation tax (B&O tax) and a retail sales tax. Discount lire collects the retail sales tax from the customer on each tire’s purchase price and remits the tax to the State of Washington Department of Revenue (Department). Discount lire also pays B&O tax on its gross proceeds from these and other sales. It is the sales tax, however, that is at issue in this appeal.

I. Extended Warranty

Included in the price of each tire that Discount Tire sells is the manufacturer’s limited warranty. A customer who returns a damaged or defective tire covered only by the manufacturer’s warranty is limited to either repair or pro rata replacement based on tire tread wear.

[516]*516For an additional fee, Discount Tire offers an optional, extended warranty. This extended warranty is among a list of options that a customer may select by checking the appropriate box on the sales contract displayed on a computer screen. If the customer selects the extended warranty, Discount Tire includes a “Certificate for Free Repair, Refund, or Replacement,” which appears on the back of the tire sale invoice.

Under this extended warranty, a customer may return a defective or damaged tire for repair at no additional charge. If repair is not feasible, Discount Tire refunds the original purchase price and the sales tax to the customer, with no pro rata deduction for tire tread wear. The certificate does not, however, similarly provide for refund of the extended warranty’s additional cost. Discount Tire then offers the customer a new tire at the original price, plus sales tax. But the customer is free to use the refund to purchase a new tire elsewhere.

During the relevant time period, when an extended-warranty customer used the refund to purchase a new tire, Discount Tire applied the refund to the new tire’s purchase price and sales tax. Discount Tire then remitted this new sales tax to the Department, in addition to paying B&O tax on the proceeds from the sale of the replacement tire. As it did with other returns, Discount Tire credited the refunded purchase price against its gross sale proceeds under WAC 458-20-108, taking a credit for both the B&O tax and the sales tax previously remitted on the original, but now fully refunded, tire sale. The net effect was that Discount Tire remitted a single sales tax on the entire transaction, beginning with the original tire sale, through the return and refund to the customer, and ending with the new replacement-tire sale.

In December 1998, the Department began assessing a “use tax” against Discount Tire’s sales of new replacement tires under the extended warranty. In essence, the Department asserted that Discount Tire owed two taxes on these successive sales and refunds: (1) an initial sales tax on the [517]*517original tire sale, even when that tire was later returned for a full refund, including sales tax, under the extended warranty; and (2) a second tax on Discount Tire’s sale of a new replacement tire, also under the extended warranty.1

Objecting to this “double taxation,” Discount Tire filed its November 2000 combined excise tax return and paid the $8,198.01 use tax, according to the Department’s instruction.

II. Litigation

In January 2001, Discount Tire filed a superior court action for refund of the use tax that it had paid or, in the alternative, “a credit for the amount of the sales tax refunded under Discount’s [extended warranty] program.” Clerk’s Papers (CP) at 6. Discount Tire argued that it owed no use tax on replacement tires sold under its extended warranty because (1) it was not providing “services” under the extended warranty and (2) WAC 458-20-108 allows credit for the refunded sales taxes.

Discount Tire moved for summary judgment, asking the superior court (1) to order the Department to refund the $8,198.01 use tax; (2) to find that Discount Tire was entitled to a credit under WAC 458-20-108 when it refunded the sales price and sales tax to customers who returned damaged or defective tires under the extended warranty; (3) to find that Discount Tire’s replacement tire sales under the extended warranty were statutory retail sales, not subject to use tax; and (4) to find that the Department’s imposition of a use tax on Discount Tire’s replacement-tire sales under the extended warranty was unlawful “double taxation” (sales tax had previously been collected and remitted to the Department on the replacement-tire sales). In response, the Department asked for summary judgment dismissal of Discount Tire’s refund action.

[518]*518The Department later admitted its error and abandoned the “use tax” theory during the summary judgment proceedings. But it continued to claim that (1) Discount Tire had improperly deducted from its gross sales the amounts it refunded to customers who returned tires under the extended warranty; (2) Discount Tire, thus, underpaid both its B&O and sales taxes; (3) the newly assessed “use tax” merely replaced Discount Tire’s underpaid sales tax; and (4) therefore, Discount Tire was not entitled to any refund of the use tax.

At the summary judgment hearing, the trial court addressed whether Discount Tire was entitled to a credit against taxable gross proceeds under WAC 458-20-108 when it refunded the purchase price and sales tax on a damaged tire returned under the extended warranty. The trial court granted summary judgment to the Department ruling in relevant part:

1. The undisputed factual record establishes that:

a. In every instance during November 2000 in which plaintiff sold a new replacement tire to a customer, after making a payment to the customer pursuant to its extended warranty as alleged in its complaint, plaintiff took a deduction or credit equal to the purchase price of the original tire from the gross proceeds of sale plaintiff reported on its November 2000 combined excise tax return.

b. The deductions or credits plaintiff took resulted in corresponding reductions in both the retail sales taxes and the retailing B&O taxes plaintiff reported it owed for the November 2000 tax period.

c. Whenever plaintiff sold a new replacement tire to a customer pursuant to its extended warranty as alleged in its complaint, plaintiff sold the replacement tire at the same price the customer had paid for the damaged original tire, as required by the terms of the extended warranty.

d.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 P.3d 400, 121 Wash. App. 513, 2004 Wash. App. LEXIS 352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/discount-tire-co-of-washington-inc-v-department-of-revenue-washctapp-2004.