May Department Stores Co. v. City of Los Angeles

204 Cal. App. 3d 1368, 251 Cal. Rptr. 873, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 932
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 5, 1988
DocketNo. B031891
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 204 Cal. App. 3d 1368 (May Department Stores Co. v. City of Los Angeles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
May Department Stores Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 204 Cal. App. 3d 1368, 251 Cal. Rptr. 873, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 932 (Cal. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

Opinion

KLEIN, P. J.

Defendant and appellant City of Los Angeles (the City) appeals the judgment entered after a court trial in favor of plaintiff and respondent May Department Stores Company (May Co.).

Because the City’s Ruling No. 19 fails to apportion fairly finance charge income attributable to May Co.’s out-of-city deferred payment retail credit sales based upon the amount of activity generating that income taking place within the city, the trial court properly found the rule arbitrary. Further, the apportionment formula of Ruling No. 14, utilized by the trial court in lieu of Ruling No. 19, was designed to apportion gross receipts arising out of retail sales and is not applicable to finance charges. Therefore, the judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Factual and Procedural Background1

May Co.’s complaint sought recovery of $17,042.80 plus interest from the City as a refund of 1980 and 1981 business taxes attributable to finance charges earned on deferred payment retail credit sales made at May Co.’s out-of-city stores and apportioned under Ruling No. 19.

The complaint also prayed for a declaration that the method used by the City to tax finance charges earned on goods sold outside the city was unconstitutional.

1. The City’s business tax.

The City imposes a business or gross receipts tax upon businesses operating within its boundaries pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) sections 21.00 through 21.197. May Co. operates retail stores both [1371]*1371within and outside the boundaries of the city. All of May Co.’s selling and retailing activities occur at the store making the sale. Additionally, certain accounting activities relating to the “input of the information on deferred payment retail credit sales, which is used for billings and the basis for finance charge gross receipts, as well as some of the collection of payments on charge accounts” occur at the retail store.

In addition to receipts from the sale of retail goods, May Co. earns finance charges in connection with its deferred payment credit sales. These finance charges accrue at a prescribed percentage of the unpaid balance. May Co. maintains its accounting center in the city “from which it performed credit, billing, collection and accounting activities in connection with retail deferred payment credit sales made within and without the [c]ity and any finance charges resulting therefrom.”

“Prior to 1973, the inputting of all information for credit sales occurred at ‘Central Headquarters’ of May Co. in . . . Los Angeles. This processing of information was performed by input clerks who received the credit sales data from the individual retail stores, [fl] By 1973, May Co. had installed point of sale (POS) terminals at each retail store where the sale of goods and merchandise occur. These POS terminals then were employed for the inputting function on credit sales by [sales persons] in place of the input clerks at Central Headquarters in . . . Los Angeles. By the tax years 1980 and 1981, the input clerks in . . . Los Angeles had been eliminated, except for those processing credit adjustments and payments. Such adjustments do not include returns of goods or merchandise, which are processed at the retail stores. [1J] .... [H] ... ■ Invoicing credit sales requires twice the time as cash sales.”

“Prior to tax year 1980, the City had accepted any reasonable basis for apportionment of the gross receipts from finance charges on May Co.’s out-of-[c]ity deferred payment retail credit sales based on activities carried on within the [c]ity, which in the case of May Co. was at 10.72% for several tax years prior to and including 1979.” The 10.72 percent apportionment ratio accepted by the City in tax years prior to 1980 had been derived by comparing May Co.’s sales payroll attributable to invoicing retail credit sales with May Co.’s accounting center credit department payroll.2

[1372]*13722. The city clerk’s rulings.

“Pursuant to LAMC Section 21.15(h), . . . , the City Clerk’s Office has promulgated ‘City Clerk’s Rulings’ which are administrative determinations to assist in the enforcement and processing of the Business Tax.”

City Clerk Ruling No. 14 deals with “Persons Selling Goods, Wares and Merchandise Who have a Fixed Place of Business in Los Angeles.” It attempts to apportion gross receipts from retail sales between activities taking place within the city and activities taking place outside the city. It permits a taxpayer to “deduct from 100% of gross receipts the percentage of gross receipts deemed to be directly attributable to selling activities carried on . . . outside the City . . . .” The ruling allows deductions of up to 30 percent for the location where the sale is negotiated or solicited, up to 20 percent for the location of the sales office which serves as the base of operations for sales activities, up to 10 percent for the location where orders or contracts are accepted and approved, up to 20 percent for any facility operated by the taxpayer where the goods are stored immediately prior to shipment or delivery and up to 5 percent each for the location which gives the order for or arranges for the shipment of articles sold, for the place where the billing procedures are performed, for the place where the collecting is performed and for the place to which merchandise is delivered by vehicles operated by the taxpayer.

Effective January 1, 1980, the office of the city clerk issued Ruling No. 19 which declared, for the purpose of apportioning gross receipts from finance charges arising from deferred payment retail credit sales, 50 percent of such receipts are attributable to the activities of solicitation, negotiation and consummation of the retail transaction and 50 percent of the receipts are attributable to the credit, billing, collection and accounting activities.

“The only reason for the use and application of Ruling No. 19 for tax years 1980 and 1981 by the City Clerk’s Office, rather than the acceptance as in years prior thereto of any reasonable apportionment formula to apportion finance charges from out-of-[c]ity deferred payment retail credit sales was the promulgation of Ruling No. 19 itself.”
“Under Ruling No. 19, it is the [c]ity’s position that there can be no modification of the apportionment formula therein unless some or all of the accounting activities, such as credit approval/authorization, billing, collection and accounting in the case of May Co. occur outside the [c]ity.”

3. The trial court’s ruling.

The trial court determined “Los Angeles City Clerk’s Ruling No. 19, as applied to plaintiff May Department Stores Company, is arbitrary, [1373]*1373capricious, unreasonable, improper, and invalid; . . .” In lieu of Ruling No. 19, the trial court found “City Clerk’s Ruling No. 14 is the proper apportionment formula applicable to the determination of plaintiff May Department Stores Company’s taxable gross receipts from the sale of goods, wares and merchandise and finance charges on out-of-[c]ity deferred payment retail credit sales; . . .”

In addition to awarding May Co. a refund for the tax years 1980 and 1981, the trial court awarded May Co. “interest as prescribed in Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 21.05(e) . . . .” Judgment was filed and entered in favor of May Co.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 Cal. App. 3d 1368, 251 Cal. Rptr. 873, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/may-department-stores-co-v-city-of-los-angeles-calctapp-1988.