Miss. State Tax Com'n v. Oscar E. Austin

719 So. 2d 1172, 1998 WL 469986
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 13, 1998
Docket97-CA-00954-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 719 So. 2d 1172 (Miss. State Tax Com'n v. Oscar E. Austin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miss. State Tax Com'n v. Oscar E. Austin, 719 So. 2d 1172, 1998 WL 469986 (Mich. 1998).

Opinion

719 So.2d 1172 (1998)

MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION and The State of Mississippi
v.
OSCAR E. AUSTIN TRUST and Oscar E. Austin, Trustee.

No. 97-CA-00954-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

August 13, 1998.

Brad D. Wilkerson, Bobby R. Long, Jackson, for Appellants.

Harris H. Barnes, Jackson, for Appellees.

Before SULLIVAN, P.J., and McRAE and SMITH, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. The Mississippi State Tax Commission appeals a June 30, 1997 order of the Hinds County Chancery Court, granting a motion for summary judgment in favor of Oscar E. Austin and the Oscar E. Austin Revocable Trust and denying the Commission's cross-motion for summary judgment. The chancellor found that the transfer of Austin's automobile into a revocable trust did not subject it to sales tax pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201 (1990). We agree.

I.

¶ 2. Oscar E. Austin established a revocable trust on December 18, 1993, as amended January 29, 1994, known as the Oscar E. Austin Revocable Trust. The trust was designed to provide for his needs and those of his wife during his lifetime, and at his death, to pass assets to his wife through a marital deduction trust pursuant to Section 2056 of the Internal Revenue Code, as well as to his children and grandchildren, and to other named beneficiaries. Various assets were transferred from Austin, as creator, to the *1173 trust with Austin as trustee during his lifetime.

¶ 3. Austin's 1988 Oldsmobile 98 was among those assets placed in the trust. Title was transferred from Austin to the trust on May 4, 1994. At that time, he was assessed sales tax in the amount of $139.00 pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201, the casual tax imposed on the sale of automobiles. He paid under protest.

¶ 4. The Board of Review of the State Tax Commission denied Austin's written Claim for Refund on April 20, 1995. Austin appealed the decision. By order dated September 27, 1995, the Commission denied Austin's request for a refund he sought in the amount of $139.00 he paid upon transferring his automobile to the trust, stating:

... Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201 (1972) provides that a three percent (3%) tax is imposed on every "person" purchasing any motor vehicle required to be registered in this state. This statute is commonly referred to as the casual sales tax on motor vehicles. In defining "person," the sales tax law, Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-3(c) provides that trusts are included within said term. Therefore, the Commission is satisfied that the transaction in question is subject to the tax.

¶ 5. On October 12, 1995, the Oscar E. Austin Revocable Trust, by and through Oscar E. Austin, Trustee, filed a complaint in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County appealing the Commission's ruling that the transfer of Austin's personal automobile into a revocable trust, set up as an alternative to a will, was a transfer pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201 and subject to a casual sales tax.

¶ 6. Austin filed a motion for summary judgment on February 20, 1996, asserting that, as a matter of law, he was not liable for sales tax on the transfer of his automobile to the trust since the transaction was not a "purchase" as contemplated by Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201. The Commission filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, asserting that transfer of title to a motor vehicle is a taxable event, reflected by the transfer documents which showed Austin as the seller and the trust as the purchaser. A hearing on the motions was held on March 7, 1997. Finding that the transfer of the automobile title from Austin's name to the Trust was not subject to the tax on the sale of motor vehicles, the chancellor entered an order on July 15, 1997, granting the Trust's motion for summary judgment and denying the Commission's cross-motion for summary judgment. The Commission was ordered to remit $139.00 plus interest to the Trust.

II.

¶ 7. This Court, like the chancery court, reviews decisions of the State Tax Commission under the arbitrary and capricious standard. Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. v. Buelow, 670 So.2d 12, 16 (Miss.1995); Mississippi State Tax Comm'n v. Jenkins, 624 So.2d 91, 92 (Miss.1993). However, the Supreme Court will not defer to the Commission's interpretation of a taxation statute when the interpretation is repugnant to the plain meaning thereof. Mississippi State Tax Comm'n v. Dyer Inv. Co., Inc., 507 So.2d 1287, 1289 (Miss.1987). Further, this Court reviews the chancellor's findings of fact under the manifest error/substantial evidence rule. Mississippi State Tax Comm'n v. Medical Devices, Inc., 624 So.2d 987, 989 (Miss.1993). This Court reviews the application of the law de novo and the scope of review is plenary. Id. at 989.

III.

¶ 8. A living trust is but one of many forms of will substitutes. See, Douglas H. Lefeve, Note, Will Substitutes in Mississippi, 41 Miss. L.J. 177, 185-86 (1969). By definition, such a trust, when revocable, as well as any title to property contained therein, "continue[s] and exist[s] only at the will and pleasure of the settler." Hiserodt v. Hamlett, 74 Miss. 37, 47, 20 So. 143, 145 (1896). Discussing the requisites of transferring property by means of a valid and enforceable trust, whether revocable or not, this Court has stated that "`[i]t is not essential, however, that the donor should part with the possession in cases where he thus creates or declares a trust.'" Ladner v. Ladner, 128 Miss. 75, 79, 90 So. 593, 595 (1922)(quoting 2 Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence, § 997). At *1174 issue, in a case of first impression before this Court, is whether the transfer of title to an individual's automobile, which is to remain in his use and possession, from his own name to that of a revocable trust, for which he is both creator and trustee, is subject to state sales tax pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 27-65-201 (1990).

¶ 9. Sales of motor vehicles in Mississippi are taxed pursuant to § 27-65-201, which provides in relevant part:

Tax upon sale or use of motor vehicles.
(1) For the purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires, the term "motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle required to be registered or licensed by the county tax collectors pursuant to Section 27-19-43, Mississippi Code of 1972.

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Bluebook (online)
719 So. 2d 1172, 1998 WL 469986, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miss-state-tax-comn-v-oscar-e-austin-miss-1998.