McKesson Water Products Co. v. Director, Division of Taxation

23 N.J. Tax 449
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedAugust 13, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 23 N.J. Tax 449 (McKesson Water Products Co. 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
McKesson Water Products Co. v. Director, Division of Taxation, 23 N.J. Tax 449 (N.J. Super. Ct. 2007).

Opinion

KUSKIN, J.T.C.

Plaintiff McKesson Water Products Company (“Water Products”) challenges an assessment of corporation business tax (“CBT”) in the sum of $807,092 imposed for the period April 1, 1999 through February 29, 2000 by defendant Director of the New Jersey Division of Taxation (“Director”) pursuant to the New Jersey Corporation Business Tax Act (“Act”), N.J.S.A. 54:10A-1 to -41. Water Products’ CBT return for the period showed a total tax liability of $244,990, an amount $1,820,110 less than the estimated taxes of $2,065,100 that Water Products previously had paid. The Director treated the return as, in effect, a refund claim. After determining that Water Products received gain allocable to New Jersey as a result of a deemed sale of assets pursuant to an election under Section 338(h)(10) of the Internal Revenue Code, the Director imposed CBT for the period in issue in the amount of $1,052,082 ($244,990 plus $807,092), and issued a refund of $1,013,018 ($2,065,100 minus $1,052,082). Water Products protested the Director’s determination, and, after failing to obtain the relief it sought through the administrative process, filed this appeal.

[451]*451Both Water Products and the Director have moved for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, I hold that Water Products is entitled to the additional refund it seeks. Consequently, I grant Water Products’ motion and deny the Director’s motion.

I. BACKGROUND

During the time period in issue, Water Products was a Delaware corporation with its commercial domicile and principal place of business in California. It was engaged in the business of the sale of bottled drinking water nationally, using both direct delivery and retail outlets. The corporation was a wholly-owned subsidiary of McKesson Corporation (“Parent”). Parent’s business was the sale of health-related, primarily pharmaceutical-type, products.

On January 10, 2000, Parent, as seller, entered into an agreement with Danone International Brands, Inc., and Groupe Danone, S.A. (together “Danone”), as buyers, under which Parent agreed to sell all of its stock of Water Products to Danone. The sale closed on February 29, 2000. In connection with this transaction, Parent and Danone made an election under Section 338(h)(10) of the Internal Revenue Code.

A Section 338(h)(10) election permits a sale of stock to be treated, for federal income tax purposes, as a sale of assets by the entity whose stock is being sold (the “target corporation”) to a hypothetical new corporation of the same name. The target corporation is deemed to have received a purchase price equal to the amount that was in fact paid by the purchaser to the parent corporation as consideration for the purchase of the target corporation’s stock. The target corporation is then deemed to have made a liquidating distribution to its shareholder(s). As a result of the deemed sale, the assets of the target corporation receive a stepped-up basis for purposes of depreciation under the Internal Revenue Code. See Treas. Reg. 1.838-l(a) and (d) (describing a deemed sale of assets transaction).

Pursuant to Section 338(h)(10), therefore, Parent’s sale of Water Products stock to Danone was treated as if Water Products had [452]*452sold its assets to a new company of the same name. The new company was deemed to have paid to Water Products, as the purchase price for the assets, an amount equal to the purchase price Danone paid Parent for Water Products’ stock. Water Products was then deemed to have liquidated and to have distributed to Parent the proceeds of the hypothetical sale of its assets.

By regulation, N.J.A.C. 18:7-5.8, the Director has recognized Section 338(h)(10) elections for purposes of the CBT. The regulation is entitled “Calculation of gain in certain instances” and provides as follows:

(a) A selling parent corporation in a Federal I.R.C. 338(h)(10) transaction does not recognize gain on the sale of target stock for New Jersey purposes for acquisition dates occurring on or after January 14,1992.
(b) Where a target corporation recognizes gain as the result of an I.R.C. 338(h)(10) election, the target reports and pays tax on such gain pursuant to N.J.AC. 18:7-5.1(a).
[N.J.A.C. 18:7-5.8.]

Water Products contends that the gain resulting from its deemed sale of assets under the Section 338(h)(10) election may not be allocated to New Jersey for CBT purposes because the gain constituted nonoperational income under N.J.S.A. 54:10A-6.1(a). This statute permits allocation to New Jersey of “operational” income but requires that “nonoperational” income be assigned to a corporation’s principal place of business. The statute provides as follows:

“Operational income” subject to allocation to New Jersey means income from tangible and intangible properly if the acquisition, management and disposition of the property constitute integral parts of the taxpayer’s regular trade or business operations and includes investment income serving an operational function. Income that a taxpayer demonstrates with clear and [cogent] convincing evidence is not operational income, is classified as nonoperational income, and the nonoperational income of taxpayers [other than those that have their principal place from which the trade, or business of the taxpayer is directed or managed in this State,] is not subject to allocation, but shall be specifically assigned; provided that 100% of the nonoperational income of a taxpayer that has its principal place from which the trade or business of the taxpayer is directed or managed in this State shall be specifically assigned to this State to the extent permitted under the Constitution and statutes of the United States.
[N.J.S.A. 54:10A-6.1(a).]

The bracketed language in the quotation was deleted by 2002 amendments, L. 2002, c. 40, § 9, and the underlined portion was [453]*453added by those amendments. The amendments were applicable to “taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2002.” L. 2002, c. 40, § 33.

As in effect for the period April 1, 1999 to February 29, 2000, the statute required “clear and cogent” evidence that income was nonoperational. This phrase appears to have been derived from a decision by the United States Supreme Court in Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Board, 463 U.S. 159, 103 S.Ct. 2933, 77 L.Ed.2d 545 (1983) where the Court stated: “As previously noted, the taxpayer always has the distinct burden of showing by clear and cogent evidence that the state tax results in extraterritorial values being taxed” (citations and internal quotations omitted). 463 U.S. at 175,103 S.Ct. at 2945, 77 L.Ed.2d at 559-60

N.J.S.A. 54:10A-6.1 was enacted in 1998, L. 1993, c. 173, § 5. The Assembly Appropriations Committee Statement to the legislation including this statute contained the following explanation of the statute:

[T]he United States Supreme Court recently determined in the Allied[-]Signal, Inc. case that a corporation may have certain types of corporate income that have no relationship with the corporation’s activities in a particular state and which therefore may not be included in the income that is subject to allocation and taxation by that state.

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23 N.J. Tax 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckesson-water-products-co-v-director-division-of-taxation-njtaxct-2007.