Midwest Bus Corp. v. Department of Treasury

793 N.W.2d 246, 288 Mich. App. 334
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 16, 2010
DocketDocket No. 288686
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 793 N.W.2d 246 (Midwest Bus Corp. v. Department of Treasury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Midwest Bus Corp. v. Department of Treasury, 793 N.W.2d 246, 288 Mich. App. 334 (Mich. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

CAVANAGH, J.

Plaintiff appeals as of right a Court of Claims order granting defendants’ motion for summary disposition in this tax dispute involving the Single Business Tax Act (SBTA), MCL 208.1 et seq., repealed effective December 31, 2007. We affirm.

Plaintiff filed its declaratory judgment action following an audit covering single business tax years 1999 through 2004, and the receipt of tax due bills. Plaintiff averred that it was in the business of selling bus parts and remanufacturing buses. Plaintiff alleged that its remanufacturing contracts with various transit authorities involved primarily the sale of tangible personal property — bus parts, regardless of the fact that charges for plaintiffs installation of those parts were also included in the contracts. Accordingly, revenue from the sales at issue, which gave rise to the disputed tax due bills, should have been allocated to the destinations where the parts were shipped, as sales of tangible personal property under MCL 208.52, and not allocated to Michigan, under MCL 208.53, where the installation services were performed. Thus, plaintiff alleged, it was entitled to a refund of the overpayment of taxes.

[337]*337Subsequently, cross-motions for summary disposition were filed and the parties agreed that the matter was controlled by the holding in Catalina Mktg Sales Corp v Dep’t of Treasury, 470 Mich 13; 678 NW2d 619 (2004). Plaintiffs legal position remained the same. Defendants, however, argued that plaintiffs business of remanufacturing buses did not merely involve the sale of bus parts. Rather, plaintiff “remanufactured” buses, which meant that the service of actually installing the bus parts was not merely incidental to the sale of the parts — the rehabilitation service was the predominant purpose of the business contracts. Accordingly, revenue from the disputed sales is properly allocated to Michigan, under MCL 208.53, where the services were performed and plaintiff was not entitled to any refund or other relief. After consideration of the “incidental to service” six-part test set forth in Catalina Mktg Sales Corp, the Court of Claims agreed with defendants and granted their motion for summary disposition. This appeal followed.

First, plaintiff argues that the revenue it received from remanufacturing contracts like the one it had with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is predominantly for the sale of tangible personal property and should be allocated, under MCL 208.52, to destinations outside Michigan. We disagree. This Court reviews de novo a decision by the Court of Claims on a motion for summary disposition and issues requiring statutory interpretation. Herald Wholesale, Inc v Dep’t of Treasury, 262 Mich App 688, 693; 687 NW2d 172 (2004).

The single business tax (SBT) was explained in Trinova Corp v Dep’t of Treasury, 433 Mich 141; 445 NW2d 428 (1989), as follows:

The single business tax is a form of value added tax, although it is not a pure value added tax. “Value added is [338]*338defined as the increase in the value of goods and services brought about by whatever a business does to them between the time of purchase and the time of sale.” In short, a value added tax is a tax upon business activity. The act employs a value added measure of business activity, but its intended effect is to impose a tax upon the privilege of conducting business activity within Michigan. It is not a tax upon income. [Id. at 149 (citations omitted).]

The “value added” concept has been described as “a means of consistently measuring the size of business firms and other economic enterprises comprising the total economy . .. .” Haughey, The economic logic of the single business tax, 22 Wayne L R 1017 (1976). “[T]he measure of the tax is the use of labor and capital.” Kasisehke, Computation of the Michigan single business tax: Theory and mechanics, 22 Wayne L R 1069, 1070 (1976).

The computation of the SBT involves several steps, but begins with calculation of the taxpayer’s tax base. “The tax base computation is designed to calculate the contribution each business makes to the total economy; in economic terms, this contribution is the economic size of the business.” Id. “Each business will pay a tax proportionate to its economic size.” Id. If the taxpayer’s business activities are confined to Michigan, the entire tax base is allocated to Michigan and subject to taxation under the SBTA. See MCL 208.40. If the taxpayer’s business activities are taxable both in Michigan and another state, only a certain part of its tax base is allocated to Michigan because a state may not tax value earned outside of its borders. See MCL 208.41; Trinova Corp, 433 Mich at 151 (citation omitted).

The SBTA provides a formula for apportioning a tax base between two or more taxing states and the formula takes into consideration three factors: property, payroll, and sales. Id. at 151-152; see, also, MCL 208.45a. At [339]*339issue in this case is the sales factor. Under MCL 208.51(1), the sales factor is a fraction that has as its numerator the taxpayer’s total sales in this state, and as its denominator “the total sales of the taxpayer everywhere during the tax year.” The SBTA distinguishes between two types of sales: sales of tangible personal property and sales “other than sales of tangible personal property . . ..” MCL 208.52 and MCL 208.53. For purposes of the sales factor, under MCL 208.52(b), sales of tangible personal property are considered “in this state,” if “the property is shipped or delivered to any purchaser within this state ....” And, under MCL 208.53, sales, “other than sales of tangible personal property,” are considered “in this state” if either the business activity is performed in Michigan or if performed in Michigan and elsewhere, “based on costs of performance, the greater proportion of the business activity is performed in this state . . . .” Sales “in this state” are placed in the numerator of the sales factor, while sales not considered “in this state” are placed in the denominator.

On appeal the parties agree that the transactions at issue in this case are “mixed transactions” in that they involve elements of both sales of tangible personal property and sales other than sales of tangible personal property. That is, bus parts were sold, but so was the service of installing the bus parts. However, plaintiff claims that the sale of bus parts was the primary purpose of the transactions and that the bus parts were “sold,” for purposes of the sales factor, when each completely rehabilitated bus was delivered back to its out-of-state owner. Thus, the “sale” of tangible personal property was not “in this state” and belongs in the denominator of the sales factor. Defendants disagree and claim that plaintiffs complete rehabilitation of each bus was the primary purpose of the transaction [340]*340and, because this business activity was performed in Michigan, the “sale” was “in this state” and belongs in the numerator of the sales factor. The SBTA is silent with regard to these types of transactions. But the parties agree that the six-part incidental-to-service test set forth in Catalina Mktg Sales Corp is applicable to determine whether a transaction should be considered a sale of tangible personal property or a sale of a service, i.e., a sale other than a sale of tangible personal property.

In Catalina Mktg Sales Corp,

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Bluebook (online)
793 N.W.2d 246, 288 Mich. App. 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/midwest-bus-corp-v-department-of-treasury-michctapp-2010.