Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. v. Taxation Division Director

5 N.J. Tax 154
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1983
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 5 N.J. Tax 154 (Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. v. Taxation Division Director) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. v. Taxation Division Director, 5 N.J. Tax 154 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1983).

Opinion

ANDREW, J.T.C.

Plaintiff Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. seeks a refund of (1) the use tax paid on advertising and promotional materials purchased from out-of-state vendors and delivered to direct mailing houses in New Jersey for distribution outside of New Jersey and (2) the sales tax paid on mailing labels supplied by direct mailing houses in the performance of their services for plaintiff. By letter dated January 28, 1980, defendant Director, Division of Taxation, denied the refund claim. The taxes in question are for the period November 20, 1976 through November 20, 1978. The parties have stipulated to the following facts.

Plaintiff is a New Jersey corporation with its principal office in Nutley, New Jersey. It is engaged in the manufacture and [157]*157sale of pharmaceutical products, vitamins, fine chemicals, diagnostic tests, medical devices and other health care items. During the refund claim period plaintiff contracted with out-of-state printers for the purchase of materials, supplies and printing services in connection with the production of promotional and advertising materials. Plaintiff paid New Jersey sales and use taxes of $111,648.08 on these materials. In accordance with their contracts with plaintiff, the printers sent the completed materials to direct mailing houses in New Jersey with which plaintiff had also contracted.

The direct mailing houses maintain mailing lists of members of various occupations, such as physicians. Plaintiff’s contracts provided that the direct mailing houses utilize their mailing lists to prepare mailing labels for distribution of plaintiff’s advertising and promotional materials. Plaintiff selected the audiences to be covered by the mailings from detailed charts supplied by the direct mailing houses which summarized by specific categories of occupations the numbers of names and addresses on the mailing lists. In some cases, as part of the services contracted for by plaintiff, the direct mailing house would fold and insert the advertising materials into mailing envelopes. For every contract the houses sorted the materials, tied them and placed them into the mail to the ultimate recipient who was not charged for the material. Plaintiff has paid New Jersey sales tax on the charges for the services provided for by the direct mail houses.1

The parties have further stipulated that the direct mail houses acted as independent contractors in performing their services for plaintiff, and that plaintiff directed and controlled the activities [158]*158of the houses only to the extent that it (1) ordered the direct mailing of the advertising materials and selected the professional audience to be covered by the mailing; (2) supplied the houses with its own short list of names and addresses to be included in the mailings; (3) ordered “dummies” to be picked at random and sent to plaintiff for quality control purposes; (4) directed that a small quantity of materials be sent to plaintiff’s New Jersey offices for internal use.

The direct mail houses sent no more than 3.5% of plaintiff’s advertising materials to physicians and other interested persons or prospective customers in New Jersey. This percentage includes materials sent at plaintiff’s direction to plaintiff itself. Thus, 96.5% of the advertising materials were mailed to persons outside New Jersey. The amount of plaintiff’s refund claim with respect to the tax paid on the advertising material reflects only the tax on materials sent outside the state.2

Plaintiff claims two refunds. It first contends that it does not “use” the advertising and promotional materials within the meaning of the New Jersey Sales and Use Tax Act, N.J.S.A. 54:32B-1 et seq. (the act), and that such materials are therefore not taxable. Alternatively, if the tax is found to apply to these materials, plaintiff argues that such taxation by New Jersey is violative of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

Plaintiff also claims a refund on the portion of the sales tax paid for direct mailing services that represents the tax on the price of mailing labels supplied by the direct mailing houses. Plaintiff bases this claim on the exemption provided by N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.15 for wrapping supplies used incidentally in the delivery of personal property.

[159]*159I. Advertising and Promotional Materials

A. Applicability of the Use Tax.

N.J.S.A. 54:32B-3(a) imposes a sales tax on the receipts from every retail sale of tangible personal property, except as otherwise provided by the act. N.J.S.A. 54:32B-6 imposes a compensating use tax on any tangible personal property purchased at retail for use within New Jersey which has not already been or will be subject to the sales tax. “Use” is defined by N.J.S.A. 54:32B-2(h) as:

The exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property by the purchaser thereof and includes, but is not limited to, the receiving, storage or any keeping or retention for any length of time, withdrawal from storage, any installation, any affixation to real or personal property, or any consumption of real property.

In Diamondhead Corp. v. Taxation Div. Director, 4 N.J.Tax 255 (Tax Ct.1982), the Tax Court had occasion to examine the legislative intent in enacting the use tax, and explained that

The use tax is imposed on the exercise of a right or power over tangible personal property as opposed to being imposed on a sale of tangible personal property or services as is the sales tax... It is evident from the designation of the tax as a compensating use tax, as well as from the language used by the Legislature in creating it as a complement to the sales tax, that a primary purpose of the tax is to prevent the State from losing revenue when tangible personal property purchased out-of-state and therefore not subject to New Jersey sales tax is nonetheless used here to the same extent as is property purchased here for which New Jersey sales tax is paid, [at 257-258]

Imposition of the use tax on plaintiff’s purchase of promotional materials from out-of-state sources would seem consistent with the intent with which the use tax was enacted, since the same materials purchased from New Jersey printers and employed in the same manner as here would be subject to the sales tax.

Plaintiff nonetheless asserts that since the advertising and promotional materials were sent directly from out-of-state suppliers to plaintiff’s independent contractors, the direct mailing houses who, in turn, mailed the materials to out-of-state recipients, plaintiff never used the materials in New Jersey within the meaning of the statute. Plaintiff emphasizes that the services of the direct mailing houses were contracted for prior to the materials’ arrival in New Jersey, at about the same [160]*160time the materials were ordered from the out-of-state printers. In effect, plaintiff contends that if it exercised any control over the materials, that control was exercised prior to the time that the materials were delivered to New Jersey, and thus plaintiff did not “use” the materials here.

Plaintiff points to language contained in Fisher-Stevens, Inc. v. Taxation Div. Director, 121 N.J.Super. 513, 298 A.2d 77 (App.Div.1972), certif. den. 62

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Bluebook (online)
5 N.J. Tax 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-la-roche-inc-v-taxation-division-director-njtaxct-1983.