Giles & Ransome, Inc. v. Whitehall Township

61 A.3d 386, 2013 WL 489997, 2013 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 44
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 11, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 61 A.3d 386 (Giles & Ransome, Inc. v. Whitehall Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Giles & Ransome, Inc. v. Whitehall Township, 61 A.3d 386, 2013 WL 489997, 2013 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 44 (Pa. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

OPINION BY

Judge BROBSON.

Appellant Giles & Ransome, Inc. (Taxpayer) 1 appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County (trial court). The trial court affirmed an order and adjudication of the Tax Appeal Board of Whitehall Township (Board). The Board’s adjudication determined that Taxpayer had underpaid its business privilege taxes for the calendar years 2002 through 2006, and the Board assessed an amount due of $837,979.24, plus interest and penalties. (Conclusion of Law no. 3.)2

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

By letter dated December 20, 2007, the Audit Department of Whitehall Township (Township) sent a notice of assessment to Taxpayer which reflected the results of an audit relating to Taxpayer’s business privilege tax, and indicated that Taxpayer “did not include retail sales made by the salesman located at that location in their gross receipts on their business privilege tax return. They also excluded service sales outside of Whitehall Township.” (R.R. at 6a.) The letter advised Taxpayer to pay the amount of $337,979.24 within thirty days of the notice.3 (Id.) On March 12, 2008, Taxpayer filed an appeal from the notice, challenging the auditor’s conclusions based primarily upon the contention that the Township’s business privilege tax ordinance, Ordinance No. 1638 (Ordinance) (R.R. at 40a), imposes taxes only upon sales made or services performed within the Township’s territorial limits. (Taxpayer’s Rider to the Appeal, R.R. at 30a.) Taxpayer contended that the Ordinance did not apply to the sales or activities identified in the audit. (Id.)

Beginning on June 22, 2010, the Board conducted four hearings on Taxpayer’s appeal.4 Taxpayer and the Township also submitted stipulations of fact. (R.R. 314a-23a.) On or about February 1, 2011, the Board concluded that “[t]he business activities of the three salesmen assigned to the Whitehall Township facility justify the imposition of business privilege taxes on the gross receipts from their sales, including [388]*388sales outside the 18052 zip code.”5 (Board Dec. at 8, Conclusion of Law no. 1 (footnote omitted).) Thus, the Board denied Taxpayer’s appeal. Taxpayer appealed the Board’s decision to the trial court, which affirmed the Board’s decision.

Taxpayer now appeals the trial court’s decision,6 raising the following issues: (1) whether the Board erred as a matter of law or abused its discretion by concluding that the Township’s business privilege tax ordinance applies to sales transactions of the three salespersons who have desks at Taxpayer’s place of business in the Township, where the actual sales of heavy duty equipment took place outside the territorial limits of the Township; (2) whether equitable principles warrant the striking of the penalties included in the assessment; and (3) if the imposition of penalties is appropriate, whether the penalties should accrue only up until March 28, 2008, the date upon which the Township and Taxpayer entered a stipulation excusing the Board from the statutory duty to issue a decision on the merits within sixty days of the date Taxpayer filed its appeal with the Board. (R.R. at 39a.)

APPLICABLE STATUTORY AND ORDINANCE PROVISIONS

Section 301.1 of the Local Tax Enabling Act, Act of December 31, 1965, P.L. 1257, as amended, 53 P.S. § 6924.301.1 (LTEA), provides the authority for governing bodies to adopt a business privilege tax, such as the Township’s.7 Section 301.1 specifically authorizes certain municipalities to:

levy, assess and collect or provide for the levying, assessment and collections of such taxes as they shall determine on persons, transactions, occupations, privileges, subjects and personal property within the limits of such political subdivisions.

The Ordinance includes the following relevant provisions:

§ 103. Levy of Tax. There is hereby reimposed for each tax year a tax for general revenue purposes on the privilege of doing business, as herein defined, in the Township, as follows:
(a) Rate of Tax. Except in the case of wholesale dealers, each taxpayer shall pay to the Township for each tax year an amount equal to one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) (or one mill per dollar) of the taxpayer’s estimated gross volume of [389]*389business for such tax year. Each wholesale dealer shall pay to the Township for each tax year an amount equal to seventy-five-thousands of one percent (0.075%) (or three-quarters (3/4) of a mill per dollar) of such wholesale dealer’s estimated gross volume of business for such tax year.
(b) Estimated Gross Volume of Business.
(1) The estimated gross volume of business for a given tax year of a taxpayer who commenced his business pri- or to the beginning of the Preceding Year shall be the actual whole or gross volume of business transacted by such taxpayer within the territorial limits of the Township during the Preceding Year.
(c) Whole or Gross Volume of Business. Whole or gross volume of business upon which the business privilege tax imposed by this Part is computed shall include the gross consideration credited or received for or on account of sales made, services performed, rentals of property, and/or other business transactions, within the territorial limits of the Township, subject only to the following allowable deductions and exemptions:
(5) Taxes collected as agent for the United States of America, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or the Township.
(6) The dollar volume of all business transactions excluded from the Business Privilege Tax under section 108 of this Part. Where whole or gross volume of business activity in its entirety cannot be subjected to the tax imposed by this Part by reason of the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, or by any other provisions of law, the Executive shall establish rules and regulations and methods of allocation and evaluation so that only that part of the whole or gross volume of business which is properly attributable and allowable to doing business in the Township shall be taxed hereunder.

(R.R. at 42a-45a (emphasis added).)8

STIPULATIONS OF FACT AND THE BOARD’S FACTUAL FINDINGS

During the tax period in question, Taxpayer maintained up to seven (7) business locations within its franchise territory, one of which is located in the Township. (S.F. nos. 8, 9; R.R. at 315a.) With regard to the manner by which sales are made and/or memorialized by a salesperson, the Township and Taxpayer agreed to the following stipulations:

18. Incoming sales inquiries are not formally logged by the answering secretary [at the Township location], nor are such inquiries memorialized in a chronological written record. After a salesperson receives an inquiry from a potential purchaser or renter, the salesperson sometimes maintains contact with such third parties by utilization of the salesperson’s personal cell phone.
19.

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Related

Giles & Ransome, Inc. v. Whitehall Township
61 A.3d 386 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 A.3d 386, 2013 WL 489997, 2013 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giles-ransome-inc-v-whitehall-township-pacommwct-2013.