Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation

24 N.J. Tax 23
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedMarch 14, 2008
StatusPublished

This text of 24 N.J. Tax 23 (Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation) 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
Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation, 24 N.J. Tax 23 (N.J. Super. Ct. 2008).

Opinion

KUSKIN, J.T.C.

Plaintiff, Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., has appealed from the denial by defendant, Director of the New Jersey Division of Taxation (“Director”), of plaintiff’s claim for a refund of sales tax in the sum of $1,976,876.95. Plaintiff paid the tax for the period August 1, 1999 through July 31, 2003 (“Refund Period”) with respect to purchases made with the use of plaintiffs private label credit card by customers who later failed to pay their credit card indebtedness. Three companies unrelated to plaintiff issued the credit cards and the indebtedness was payable to them. The Director has moved for summary judgment dismissing the appeal. For the reasons set forth below, I grant the Director’s motion.

The following facts either were stipulated by the parties or are not in dispute. Plaintiff operates retail home improvement centers in New Jersey and elsewhere in the United States. During the Refund Period, plaintiff offered its customers the option of purchasing merchandise through the use of its private label (“Home Depot”) credit card. The cards were issued by Monogram Credit Card Bank of Georgia (“Monogram”), General Electric Capital Corp. (“GE Capital”), and General Electric Capital Financial Inc. (“GE Financial”) pursuant to separate agreements with plaintiff each dated as of August 4, 1997 (collectively the “Agreements”). The agreement with Monogram related to purchases by individuals for personal, family, or household use while the GE Capital and GE Financial agreements related to purchases other than for personal, family or household use. The parties [26]*26provided no explanation as to why separate agreements were in effect with GE Capital and GE Financial both relating to the same category of customers. I will refer to Monogram, GE Capital, and GE Financial collectively as the “Finance Companies,” and will sometimes refer to any one of them as a “Finance Company.”

Each of the Agreements contained the following provisions. In order to obtain plaintiffs private label credit card, a customer was required to complete a credit card application at plaintiffs store location, and the store was required to forward the application to the appropriate Finance Company. The Finance Company, “in its sole discretion,” then determined the creditworthiness, range of credit limits, and credit criteria to be used in evaluating each application. If a Finance Company rejected an application, plaintiff had no recourse.

Each Finance Company was “the sole and exclusive owner of all documents,” credit slips, and documentation relating to the credit card accounts and was entitled to receive all payments from cardholders. Plaintiff “acknowledge[d] and agree[d] that it ha[d] no right, title or interest in any of the foregoing [documents and accounts] and no right to payment by [cardholders on [a]ceounts or any proceeds in respect of the [accounts.” All procedures for collecting amounts due on the credit card accounts were “under the sole control and discretion” of the Finance Company.

At the end of each business day, plaintiff transmitted electronically to each Finance Company data relating to transactions which occurred during that day using credit cards issued by that Finance Company. Credit card charge slips were to be delivered to the appropriate Finance Company within seven days after the transaction date. With respect to transaction data received before 4:00 p.m. on a business day, the Finance Company was obligated to remit to plaintiff by the next business day the full amount of the charges set forth in the transaction data, including sales tax charged in connection with the transactions. As to transaction data arriving at the Finance Company after 4:00 p.m. on a business day, payment was to be remitted on the second business day thereafter. In remitting the payments, the Finance Company [27]*27had the right to deduct any chargebacks against plaintiff (generally relating to breaches of warranty or other defaults by plaintiff and customer disputes as to the amount or existence of the credit card obligation), and a service fee.

The service fee payable to Monogram in connection with “promotional” purchases, that is, purchases in which Monogram agreed to waive the financing charge if the customer made timely payment, ranged from .2% to 13.8% of the aggregate purchase price for purchases of less than $2,000 and from .7% to 11.6% for purchases of $2,000 or more. For “non-promotional” purchases, the service fee varied from zero to .95% of the purchase amount. For GE Capital, the service fee ranged from 3.24% to 3.49% on all purchases, and, for GE Financial, the range was 1.91% to 2.77%. The variations in service fee amounts charged by each Finance Company were functions of the credit standing of the customer and the time period within which payment was due on the credit card debt.

Plaintiff had no credit risk with respect to purchases made using its private label credit cards. The Agreements provided that “all credit losses on [a]ceounts shall be solely borne at the expense of [the Finance Company] and shall not be passed on to [plaintiff]” except for any chargebacks. No issues relating to chargebacks are relevant to plaintiffs contentions in this matter.

Notwithstanding that it bore no direct risk with respect to nonpayment of credit card indebtedness, plaintiff seeks a refund of sales tax it was required to pay, and did pay, in connection with sales during the Refund Period made with the use of plaintiff’s private label credit card by customers who defaulted on their credit card indebtedness. Plaintiff bases its claim on N.J.S.A. 54:32B-12(c), a provision of the New Jersey Sales and Use Tax Act, N.J.S.A. 54:32B-1 to -29, and on N.J.A.C. 18:24-23.1 and - 23.2. In pertinent part, N.J.S.A. 54:32B-12(c) authorizes the Director to “provide by regulation for the exclusion from taxable receipts ... of amounts representing sales where the ... charge ... has been ascertained to be uncollectible or, in the case the tax has been paid upon such ... charge ..., for refund or credit of [28]*28the tax so paid.” The regulations the Director promulgated pursuant to the statute provide as follows:

A vendor 1 of taxable tangible personal property or services must charge and remit the sales tax on all transactions whether for cash or credit.
[.N.J.A.C. 18:24-23.1.]
Where the sales tax in connection with a sale has been remitted to the Division of Taxation and the account receivable has proven to be worthless and uncollectible, an application for a refund may be filed with the Director within four years from the payment thereof.
I'N.J.A.C. 18:24—23.2(a).]

The latter regulation includes an explanation of its functioning under three circumstances. It permits a total refund where the vendor has collected no money on account of the receivable or sale, and, where a vendor has collected less than the amount payable as tax, it permits a refund based on the difference between the amount remitted to the Division and the amount the vendor collects. N.J.A.C. 18:24-23.2(a)(l) and (3). Where the vendor has collected an amount with respect to the receivable “equal to or exceeding the amount of sales tax required to be remitted to the Division, the claim for refund will be denied.” N.J.A.C. 18:24-23.2(a)(2).

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Bluebook (online)
24 N.J. Tax 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/home-depot-usa-inc-v-director-division-of-taxation-njtaxct-2008.