Dow Chemical Co. v. Director of Revenue, State

834 S.W.2d 742, 1992 Mo. LEXIS 85, 1992 WL 126715
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 2, 1992
DocketNo. 74140
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 834 S.W.2d 742 (Dow Chemical Co. v. Director of Revenue, State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dow Chemical Co. v. Director of Revenue, State, 834 S.W.2d 742, 1992 Mo. LEXIS 85, 1992 WL 126715 (Mo. 1992).

Opinion

CHARLES SHANGLER, Special Judge.

Dow Chemical Company, a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Michigan, operates an international as well as interstate business that includes Missouri. Dow elected to use the three-factor apportionment ratio of the Multistate Tax Compact, § 32.200, art. Ill, IV, RSMo 1986, to derive its Missouri taxable income. In its Missouri tax returns for years 1975 through 1980, Dow excluded from apportionment certain corporate income, deemed as dividends for purposes of federal income tax return. Dow contended that none of the deemed dividend income was derived from sources within Missouri under § 143.-451.1, and so was subject to neither apportionment nor taxation under our revenue laws.1

In Dow Chemical Co. v. Director of Revenue, 787 S.W.2d 276 (Mo. banc 1990) [Dow I], this Court held that the apportionment [744]*744formula of the compact functions on the income of a multistate corporation as a unitary business to derive the local tax base, and not on income from sources within Missouri treated as specific geographical transactions, as does the apportionment formula of § 143.451.1. Id. at 284. Dow I remanded the proceeding to the Administrative Hearing Commission to determine whether the dividends were business or nonbusiness income within the terms of the Multistate Tax Compact. Id. at 286. If business income, the Commission was ordered to “apportion under the compact formula the dividends attributable to Missouri and subtract them from the federal taxable income as Section 143.431.2 directs” to arrive at Missouri taxable income. Id.

On remand, Dow and the Director agreed, and the Commission found independently, that the deemed dividends were business income as defined in the Multi-state Tax Compact, and so subject to apportionment to Missouri for purposes of income tax. Dow and the Director did not agree, however, on how Dow I should be applied to properly calculate Dow’s dividend subtraction under § 143.431.2. Dow contends that the apportioned dividends must be subtracted from apportioned federal taxable income. The Director contends that the apportioned dividends must be subtracted from unapportioned federal taxable income. The method of calculation used by Dow predisposes to a Missouri taxable income less than that derived by the method used by the Director.2

The Commission adopted the Dow method of calculation and ordered that the apportioned dividends be subtracted from the apportioned federal taxable income to derive Dow’s taxable Missouri income for the years in issue. The Director contends that the order of the Commission misconstrues § 143.431 and misapplies our decision in Dow I.

This case involves the construction of the revenue laws of this state. Accordingly, this Court has exclusive jurisdiction of the appeal. Mo.Const. art. V, § 3.

Section 143.071, RSMo 1986, imposes a tax upon the Missouri taxable income of corporations. Section 143.431.1 defines Missouri taxable income as “so much of its federal taxable income for the taxable year [with specified modifications] as is derived from sources within Missouri as provided in section 143.451.” Section 143.-431.2 provides: “There shall be subtracted, to the extent included in federal taxable income, corporate dividends from sources within Missouri.”3 The nub of the issue, as Dow and the Director correctly identify, is how our decision in Dow I bears to calculate the subtraction of corporate dividends under § 143.431.2.

Dow and the Director agree that on remand, given a determination that the deemed dividends are business income, Dow I directs that they be apportioned to Missouri under the three-factor formula and thereby derive the dividends “attributable to Missouri sources.” It is these corporate dividends, as apportioned, that subsection 2 of § 143.431 requires to be subtracted to the extent included in federal taxable income. Dow I, 787 S.W.2d at 286. That, also, was the determination of the Commission. To derive Missouri taxable income, the Commission formula then subtracted the apportioned dividends from apportioned federal taxable income. See Appendix A, §§ IA and IIA.

Dow I advises that the dividends “attributed to Missouri” by the compact apportionment formula be subtracted from the “federal taxable income as Section 143.-431.2 directs.” Dow I, 787 S.W.2d at 286. The Director argues that the term federal taxable income as used in § 143.431 is clear. It has the same meaning given the term by the laws of the United States relating to federal income taxes: “gross income minus deductions allowed by this Chapter.” See Internal Revenue Code § 63; Brown Group, Inc. v. Administrative Hearing Comm’n, 649 S.W.2d 874, 876 [745]*745(Mo. banc 1983). “Apportioned federal taxable income,” therefore, is not the same as “federal taxable income,” and hence the calculation of Missouri taxable income as derived by the Commission formula conforms to neither the directive of Dow I nor to the plain meaning of § 143.431.2.

Indeed, § 143.091 provides that “[a]ny term used in sections 143.011 to 143.966 shall have the same meaning as when used in a comparable context in the laws of the United States relating to federal income taxes, unless a different meaning is clearly required by [those provisions].” It is not only the text of a statute that makes the legislative intent known, however, but also the judicial decisions that construe and give effect to the statute. State v. Crawford, 478 S.W.2d 314, 317 (Mo.1972). The construction of a statute by a court of last resort becomes a part of the statute “ ‘as if it had been so amended by the legislature.’ ” Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U.S. 278, 285, 82 S.Ct. 275, 280, 7 L.Ed.2d 285 (1961). Accordingly, § 143.431 and its component subsections must be read in terms of Dow I as if the text incorporates the judicial gloss of that opinion. Palcher v. J.C. Nichols Co., 783 S.W.2d 166, 169 (Mo.App.1990).

The Director notes that subsection 1 of § 143.431 defines Missouri taxable income as “so much of its federal taxable income for the taxable year, with the modifications specified in subsections 2 and 3 of this section, as is derived from sources within Missouri as provided in section 143.451.”4 To that statutory definition text, the Director addends: “or, in this case, as provided by the Multistate Tax Compact.” The Director also notes that subsection 2 expressly provides that the “modifications” in subsection 1 [here, the subtraction of corporate dividends] shall be performed on “federal taxable income.” Subsection 2, however does not refer to “so much of its federal taxable income for the taxable year ... as is derived from sources within Missouri as provided in section 143.451,” as does subsection 1, or to the Multistate Tax Compact, or to apportioned federal taxable income.

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Bluebook (online)
834 S.W.2d 742, 1992 Mo. LEXIS 85, 1992 WL 126715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dow-chemical-co-v-director-of-revenue-state-mo-1992.