Lafayette Parish Sch. Bd. v. Market Leasing

440 So. 2d 81, 1983 La. LEXIS 12549
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 17, 1983
Docket82-C-0306
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 440 So. 2d 81 (Lafayette Parish Sch. Bd. v. Market Leasing) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lafayette Parish Sch. Bd. v. Market Leasing, 440 So. 2d 81, 1983 La. LEXIS 12549 (La. 1983).

Opinion

440 So.2d 81 (1983)

LAFAYETTE PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
v.
MARKET LEASING CO., INC.

No. 82-C-0306.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

February 4, 1983.
On Rehearing October 17, 1983.
Rehearing Denied November 18, 1983.

H. Purvis Carmouche, Jr., Mouton, Roy, Carmouche, Bivins, Judice & Henke, Lafayette, for applicant.

Nan M. Landry, Alfred Smith Landry, Landry, Watkins & Bonin, New Iberia, Riley J. Boudreaux, Bobby S. Gilliam, Arthur R. Carmody, Wilkinson & Carmody, Shreveport, for respondents.

LEMMON, Justice.

This is an action to collect a "sales tax" allegedly due by defendant on the longterm lease of vehicles to lessees who are domiciled in Lafayette Parish. The primary issues are (1) whether any additional tax is due to the Lafayette Parish School Board on leases of vehicles, when the Iberia Parish lessor had purchased specific vehicles for already negotiated long-term leases *82 with Lafayette Parish domiciliaries and had paid a sales tax as purchaser on the sales of the vehicles, and (2) whether the lease transactions in this case are leases within Lafayette Parish so as to be subject to tax under the parish ordinance.

I.

Defendant, a corporation domiciled in Iberia Parish, is in the business of renting automobiles on long-term leases. When a new lease is obtained, defendant purchases an automobile for the specific lease and obtains a title as owner of the vehicle, remitting the total (state and parish) sales tax to the Collector of Revenue. All lease transactions take place in Iberia Parish, and defendant does not have an office or any salesmen operating in Lafayette Parish. The registration license issued to defendant by the state contains the name and address of the lessee. Although there was a Lafayette Parish ordinance requiring lessors to collect a tax on leases "within this Parish", defendant did not collect from the lessee or remit to the Lafayette Parish School Board any taxes on payments on leases to domiciliaries of Lafayette Parish.

When the Lafayette Parish School Board attempted to collect a tax from defendant on the monthly payments under leases of vehicles rented to Lafayette domiciliaries, defendant resisted on several grounds. The Board then filed this action, asserting that defendant should have collected and remitted the taxes. After trial on the merits, the trial court dismissed the suit, finding that the local tax collected on the sale was incorrectly remitted to the Board by the Collector of Revenue and that the Board is "entitled to no more". The court noted that a decision in favor of the Board "would result in taxing both the sale and the leasing of the vehicle".

The court of appeal affirmed, holding that defendant had paid the Board a tax not due and that defendant's debt to the Board was extinguished by confusion. 407 So.2d 23. We granted certiorari. 412 So.2d 87.

II.

In recent years, both state and local governments have enacted sales taxes which basically impose a tax not only on (1) the sale at retail of tangible personal property, but also on (2) the use or consumption, the distribution, and the storage for use or consumption of such property, (3) the lease or rental of such property, and (4) the sale of services.

Under present state law, La.R.S. 47:302 A imposes a tax on the sale or the use of each item of tangible personal property sold at retail or used in the state; Section 302 B imposes a tax on the lease or rental of each item of tangible personal property within the state; and Section 302 C imposes a tax on sale of services within the state.

At the local level in Lafayette Parish, Ordinance No. 1, adopted in 1965 by the Lafayette Parish School Board pursuant to La.R.S. 33:2737, imposes a tax upon the lease or rental of tangible personal property within the parish at the rate of 1% of the monthly lease or rental payments made or agreed to be made by the lessee.[1] Section 2.01(4). The ordinance, substantially tracking the state statute, also imposes a tax on the sale at retail and the use of tangible personal property, as well as on sales of services.

The Legislature, apparently realizing that the imposition of a tax on several different transactions involving the same property may result in some unintended duplication, has enacted many exclusions and exemptions from state taxes as to specific items.[2] Pertinent to the tax on leases, La.R.S. 47:305.23 A exempts lessors or lessees of automobiles and trucks from the payment *83 of tax on the rental or lease payments, when the lease term is six months or more and a tax has been paid to the state on the sales price of the vehicle. However, the exemption expressly does not apply to taxes on lease or rental payments which have been imposed by school boards or other local taxing authorities. La.R.S. 47:305.23 B. Thus, as to the tax on lease or rental payments imposed by the ordinance enacted by the Lafayette Parish School Board, there is no exemption for long-term leases of vehicles on which taxes have already been paid on the sale or use of the vehicle, and there is no provision for deduction of previously paid taxes on the sale or use of the vehicle as a credit on the tax due the Board on the lease of the vehicle.[3]

As to collection of the tax, La.R.S. 47:303 provides that the tax shall be collectible from the dealer, as defined in Section 301, except the tax imposed by Section 302 A (sales or use tax) on vehicles, which the vehicle commissioner collects at the time of the application for registration license or certificate of title. The dealer in turn is authorized to collect the tax from the purchaser or consumer (except for sales or use tax on motor vehicles) as an amount added to the sales price or charge, and the dealer who fails, neglects or refuses to collect the tax is himself liable to the state for the tax. The Lafayette ordinance contains similar provisions. See Sections 2.03, 4.01 and 4.06.

Thus, both the state and local laws contemplate that there are two taxable transactions when a party purchases a vehicle and then enters into a long-term lease of that vehicle. Moreover, the two taxes are imposed on two different parties. In the first transaction (the sale) the tax is imposed on the purchaser (who ultimately becomes the lessor), while in the second transaction (the lease) the tax is imposed upon the lessee. Finally, the sales tax is a onetime levy on the amount of the sale, whereas the lease tax is a recurring levy on the amount of each monthly rental installment paid or agreed to be paid by the lessee. See La.R.S. 47:302 B(2) and Ordinance No. 1, Section 2.01(4). Of course, the amount of the tax on the lease is considerably different from that on the sale, depending on the amount of monthly rental installments and the term of the lease.

On the basis of all these considerations, we conclude that the lower courts erred in holding that the Board could not collect a tax from defendant on leases of vehicles merely because defendant had already paid a tax on the retail sale of the vehicle.[4]

Nevertheless, for reasons different from those expressed by the lower courts, we conclude that the Board is not entitled to collect the tax on the lease payments. We hold that this is not a lease within Lafayette Parish and that a parish or city school board, in the absence of express authorization from the Legislature, cannot impose a tax on an out-of-parish lease.[5]

The Board argues, however, that the location of the leased property determines where the act of leasing takes place. On this point the Board cites

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440 So. 2d 81, 1983 La. LEXIS 12549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lafayette-parish-sch-bd-v-market-leasing-la-1983.