E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. State Tax Assessor

675 A.2d 82, 1996 Me. LEXIS 83
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedApril 9, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 675 A.2d 82 (E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. State Tax Assessor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. State Tax Assessor, 675 A.2d 82, 1996 Me. LEXIS 83 (Me. 1996).

Opinions

LIPEZ, Justice.

This case is on report from the Superior Court (Kennebec County, Alexander, J.) pursuant to M.R.Civ. 72(a) and (c). We are asked to revisit our decision in Tambrands, Inc. v. State Tax Assessor, 595 A.2d 1039 (Me.1991) and determine whether the apportionment formula adopted by the State Tax Assessor in response to our decision in Tam-brands, the so-called “Augusta Formula,” violates either the Maine Tax Statutes or the United States Constitution’s Due Process Clause or Foreign Commerce Clause1 to the extent that it continues to permit Maine to include foreign-source dividends in the computation of the taxable income of a Maine-nexus corporation. We conclude that the apportionment formula does not violate the statutes or the Constitution.

E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company (Du Pont) is a multinational unitary business2 qualified to conduct business in the state of Maine. From 1985 through 1987 Du Pont excluded from its apportionable income on its Maine corporate income tax return dividends received from its foreign subsidiaries.

Maine determines what portion of a multi-jurisdictional corporation’s income is appor-tionable to the corporation’s business activity in Maine by using what is commonly referred to as the “water’s edge combined reporting method.” See 36 M.R.S.A. § 5244 (1990). Under this method of reporting and apportionment the state does not look beyond the water’s edge — that is, beyond the geographic boundaries of the United States — in determining what activities are appropriately considered part of the unitary business.3 Additionally, three apportionment factors are calculated in the following manner: the value of the property used by the unitary business in Maine is divided by the value of the domestic property of the unitary business, the amount of sales made by the business in Maine is divided by the sales of the domestic unitary business, and the Maine payroll of the business is divided by the payroll of the domestic unitary business. 36 M.R.S.A. §§ 5102(8), 5211 (1990). The sum of the property, sales, and payroll factors is divided by three to yield an apportionment ratio. 36 M.R.S.A. § 5211(8). The Maine net income is then determined by multiplying “that part of the federal taxable income of the entire group which derives from the unitary business” by the apportionment ratio. See 36 M.R.S.A. § 5102(8).4

[84]*84In calculating its Maine net income for the calendar years 1985-87. Du Pont treated the dividends paid to it by its foreign subsidiaries as not allocable to its apportionable business income and therefore deducted its foreign subsidiary dividends from its appor-tionable business income. The State Tax Assessor (the Assessor), after an audit, assessed against Du Pont $156,586.59 in taxes, interest, and penalties for the calendar years 1985-87 on the ground that Du Pont’s foreign subsidiary dividends should have been included in its tax base.

Du Pont requested administrative reconsideration of the assessment pursuant to 36 M.R.SA. § 151 (Supp.1995).5 On reconsideration, applying the “Augusta Formula,” adopted in response to our decision in Tambrands, Inc. v. State Tax Assessor, 595 A.2d 1039 (Me.1991), the Assessor affirmed his audit determination that Du Pont’s foreign dividend income was includable.

The Assessor developed the “Augusta Formula” to satisfy our instruction in Tam-brands “to include additional factors in the apportionment formula that would fairly represent Tambrands’ business activity.” Id. at 1045. Under the Augusta Formula, the Assessor

(A) Determines the Taxpayer’s taxable income using Maine’s statutory water’s edge method with foreign source dividends included in the taxpayer’s apportionable business income.
(B) Determines the Taxpayer’s taxable income using the worldwide combined reporting method (the “worldwide leg”).
(C)Determines the Taxpayer’s taxable income using Maine’s statutory water’s edge method without foreign source dividends included in the taxpayer’s apportionable business income (the “dividend exclusion leg”).

The result of calculation A becomes a cap, the result of calculation C becomes a floor, and the Assessor determines taxable income in the following manner: if

B>A: The taxpayer pays the amount calculated under Maine’s water’s edge statute with foreign subsidiaries dividends included and no factor relief;
B<C: The taxpayer pays the amount calculated under Maine’s water’s edge reporting method with the foreign subsidiaries dividends excluded and no factor relief;
A>B>C: The taxpayer pays the amount calculated under the worldwide reporting method and the Assessor provides factor relief, i.e. adjusts the denominators of the payroll, sales, and property factors to account for the inclusion of the foreign subsidiaries’ dividends to reach this result.

In practice the Augusta Formula computes tax liability by using the worldwide reporting method as a way of checking the fairness of the Assessor’s assessment of tax lability on the income of a multijurisdictional unitary business. When foreign dividends are included in a unitary business’s income, the amount owed by the business will not exceed the amount computed under the worldwide combined reporting method. Because the Assessor determined that the worldwide re[85]*85porting method resulted in greater tax liability for the years 1985, 1986 and 1987, the Assessor computed Du Pont’s tax liability using the water’s edge reporting method with the foreign subsidiaries’ dividends included and no factor relief.

After the Assessor upheld his assessment, Du Pont sought de novo review in the Superior Court of the Assessor’s determination pursuant to 5 M.R.S.A. § 11002 (1989), 36 M.R.SA, § 151 and M.R.CÍV.P. 80C. Du Pont brought a multi-count complaint alleging that the Assessor’s calculation of its income tax violated state statutes and the state and federal constitution. By consent of the parties, the court entered a partial judgment disposing of a majoriiy of the counts, some favorably to Du Pont and some favorably to the Assessor. The court subsequently granted Du Pont’s motion for a summary judgment on the remaining counts, finding that even with the application of the Augusta Formula the Maine taxing scheme continued to discriminate against foreign commerce. In its original order, the court remanded the case to the Assessor to determine a constitutionally permissible means of factor relief. With the agreement of Du Pont, however, the Assessor moved to report this case to us pursuant to M.R.CivJP. 72(a) and (c) and the court granted the motion.

The Assessor argues that we must vacate the court’s grant of summary judgment, contending that the court erred in its analysis and application of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Kraft General Foods v. Iowa Dep’t of Revenue, 505 U.S. 71, 112 S.Ct. 2365, 120 L.Ed.2d 59 (1992) and our decision in Tambrands.

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Bluebook (online)
675 A.2d 82, 1996 Me. LEXIS 83, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ei-du-pont-de-nemours-co-v-state-tax-assessor-me-1996.