International Harvester Co. v. Evatt

64 N.E.2d 53, 146 Ohio St. 58, 146 Ohio St. (N.S.) 58, 31 Ohio Op. 546, 1945 Ohio LEXIS 358
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1945
Docket30316
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 64 N.E.2d 53 (International Harvester Co. v. Evatt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
International Harvester Co. v. Evatt, 64 N.E.2d 53, 146 Ohio St. 58, 146 Ohio St. (N.S.) 58, 31 Ohio Op. 546, 1945 Ohio LEXIS 358 (Ohio 1945).

Opinion

Turner, J.

For the privileges set forth in Section 5495, G-eneral Code, the state charges a fee against all corporations doing business in Ohio on the value or proportionate value of the issued and outstanding shares of stock of each such corporation. (Section 5499, General Code.) The amount of this fee or tax is based on the proportion of the corporation’s property held or used in Ohio and of business done in Ohio by such corporation (domestic or foreign) during the preceding year. This fee is computed under Section 5498, General Code, by first determining the value of the issued and outstanding shares of stock of the corporation. Thereafter a base is determined by dividing the value of the issued and outstanding shares into two equal parts. One part is then multiplied by a fraction whose numerator is the fair value of'all the corporation’s property owned or used by it in Ohio and whose denominator is the fair value of all its property wheresoever situated. The other part is multiplied by a fraction whose numerator is the value of the business done by the corporation in this state during the year preceding the date of the commencement of its current annual accounting period and whose denominator is the total value of its business during such year, wherever transacted. The Tax Commissioner then certifies to the *65 Auditor of State the base determined by him through adding the two figures thus obtained. The auditor makes a charge of one-tenth of one per cent upon the base so certified and in turn certifies the amount of the fee to the Treasurer of State. The treasurer then mails to the corporation a statement showing the value or the proportionate value of the shares of stock upon which such fee is charged and the amount of the fee. (Section 5499, General Code.)

This case involves only the method used by the Tax Commissioner to the extent approved by the Board of Tax Appeals for ascertaining the numerator of the business-done part of the formula.

As stated by appellant, a foreign corporation doing business in Ohio, “there is no disagreement between the parties on this appeal as to the total net worth of International Harvester Company to which the Ohio allocation ratio is applied for each year, the amount of appellant’s property in Ohio and its total property, and its total business for each of the years involved.”

As stated by the Board of Tax Appeals in its journal entry, ‘ ‘ consequently, the only matter in dispute is the numerator of the business fraction, which represents the value of the business done by appellant in this state during each of the years involved.”

The Tax Commissioner treated the manufacturing-done at appellant’s factories in Ohio as business done in Ohio. As indicative of the value of such business done, the Tax Commissioner used the sales value of all appellant’s Ohio manufactured products sold in the previous year whether in intrastate or interstate commerce.

As the Board of Tax Appeals reduced the Tax Commissioner’s use of appellant’s Ohio factories’ production by 62 per cent on account of manufactured products shipped from appellant’s Ohio factories in each preceding year to warehouses in other states, appel *66 iant’s complaint is now reduced to the use of 38 per cent of the sales value of the preceding year of products manufactured at Springfield and shipped by the Springfield works- during a preceding year direct to buyers in other states, as indicative of the value of business done at appellant’s Ohio factories.

It is our opinion that the method followed by the Tax Commissioner and approved by the Board of Tax Appeals, in ascertaining the amount of business done in Ohio, which is all that is in question in the instant case, follows the procedure approved by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of American Mfg. Co. v. City of St. Louis, 250 U. S., 459, 63 L. Ed., 1084, 39 S. Ct., 522, as stated by Mr. Justice Pitney at page 460 of that case:

“The question is whether an ordinance of the city of St. Louis, levying against manufacturers, especially as against plaintiff in error, a West Virginia corporation, a tax imposed as a condition of the grant of a license to carry on a manufacturing business in that city, but the amount of which is ascertained by and proportioned to the amount of sales of the manufactured goods, whether sold within or without the state, and whether in domestic or interstate commerce, is void as amounting to a regulation of commerce among the states and thus intrenching upon the power of the national Congress under Art. I, §8, of the Constitution, or as amounting to a taking of plaintiff’s property without due process of law, in contravention of the 14th Amendment. ’ ’

In commenting on the American Mfg. Co. case, Mr. Justice Roberts said at page 312 in the case of J. D. Adams Mfg. Co. v. Storen, 304 U. S., 307, 82 L. Ed., 1365, 58 S. Ct., 913, 117 A. L. R., 429: “The tax on the privilege for the ensuing year was measured by a percentage of the past year’s sales.” This is the method followed in the instant case. See, also, Aponaug *67 Mfg. Co. v. Stone, 314 U. S., 577, 86 L. Ed., 467, 62 S. Ct., 131, affirming the case which arose below in Aponaug Mfg. Co. v. State Tax Commission, 190 Miss., 805, 1 So. (2d), 763; and C. H. Musselman Co. v. Alderson, Tax Commr., 315 U. S., 779, 86 L. Ed., 1187, 62 S. Ct., 580, both decided on authority of American Mfg. Co. v. City of St. Louis, supra.

In coming to its decision in the instant case the Board of Tax Appeals followed the holding of this court in the case of Aluminum Co. of America v. Evatt, Tax Commr., 140 Ohio St., 385, 45 N. E. (2d), 118, in which we held:

“1. The franchise tax levied pursuant to Sections 5498 and 5499, General Code, on a foreign corporation is for the privilege of doing business in this state or owning a part or all of its capital or property in this state or for holding a certificate of compliance with the laws of this state authorizing it to do business in this state. (Section 5495, General Code.)

“2. ‘Doing business’ in this state is only a part of the privilege taxed under Section 5495, General Code. The tax also covers the privilege of owning a part or all of the foreign corporation’s capital or property in this state as well as the privilege of holding a certificate of compliance with the laws of this state.

“3. The Ohio Franchise Tax (Section 5495 et seq., General Code) is not a tax upon commerce, state or interstate. It is not a tax upon income, receipts or sales.

“4. The manufacturing operations within this state by a foreign corporation constitute business done by such corporation in this state within the meaning of Section 5498, General Code.

“5. Tax Commissioner’s Rule No. 275 is not unreasonable or unlawful in its application in the instant case. Such rule is favorable to the taxpayer by eliminating from the base upon which the franchise tax is computed goods manufactured in Ohio and sold from

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Bluebook (online)
64 N.E.2d 53, 146 Ohio St. 58, 146 Ohio St. (N.S.) 58, 31 Ohio Op. 546, 1945 Ohio LEXIS 358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-harvester-co-v-evatt-ohio-1945.