Mississippi State Tax Commission v. Tennessee Gas Transmission Co.

116 So. 2d 550, 239 Miss. 191, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 543
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 1959
DocketNo. 41264
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 116 So. 2d 550 (Mississippi State Tax Commission v. Tennessee Gas Transmission Co.) 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
Mississippi State Tax Commission v. Tennessee Gas Transmission Co., 116 So. 2d 550, 239 Miss. 191, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 543 (Mich. 1959).

Opinions

Ethridge, J.

The case involves the validity of an apportionment formula of a state franchise tax upon a multistate corporation, measured by an allocation' to Mississippi of capital used, invested or employed within the state. The chancery court held the statutory formula was void because in violation of the interstate commerce and due process clauses of the United States Constitution. However, we conclude that the statute is a valid exercise of the. State’s taxing power.

[197]*197I.

The corporate franchise tax was originally enacted in 1934. Miss. Laws 1934, Chapter 121; Miss. Laws 1940, Chapter 115. Its amount was increased in 1955. Miss. Laws 1955, Ex. Sess., Chapter 118. In 1956 the Legislature substantially rewrote the franchise tax act. Miss. Laws 1956, Chapter 412. The provision under attack here was enacted in that year as Section 4, and is Miss. Code 1942, Recompiled, Section 9319:

“Multistate corporations.
“In the, case of organizations doing business both within and without Mississippi, the value of the capital employed in this state shall be determined by first computing the ratio between (1) the real and tangible personal property owned or used in Mississippi and gross receipts from business carried on in Mississippi and (2) the total real and tangible personal property and gross receipts wherever located and from wherever received. Said ratio then shall be applied to the total capital stock, surplus, undivided profits and true reserves and the result of that application shall be the capital employed in this state. Provided, however, that the amount of the determined capital in Mississippi shall in no case be less than the assessed value of the property of the organization for the year preceding the year in which the return is due.
“For the purpose of this section, an organization which uses a formula method of apportionment in making income tax returns to this state shall determine its gross receipts from business carried on in Mississippi by applying to total unitary receipts the ratio achieved, or which would be achieved, by such formula and adding to the result of such application any nonunitary Mississippi receipts.”

The tax is levied on both domestic corporations, Code Section 9313, and foreign corporations, Code Section 9314. It is measured by “the value of the capital used, invested or employed within this state.” Section 9314. [198]*198 The local incident, taxable basis or subject of the tax is “the benefit and protection of the government and laws of the state” received by the taxpayer, and as an exaction and recompense for protection of the local activities in maintaining, keeping in repair, and otherwise in manning the facilities of an interstate pipeline. Accordingly, the incident selected does not lend itself to repeated exactions in other states. And it is not discriminatory, when properly apportioned to the capital nsed, invested or employed in Mississippi. Stone v. Interstate Natural Gas Co., 103 Fed. 2d 544 (C. C. A. 5th 1939), affirmed per curiam in 308 U. S. 522, 60 S. Ct. 292, 84 L. Ed. 442 (1939), following Southern Natural Gas Corp. v. Alabama, 301 U. S. 148, 57 S. Ct. 696, 81 L. Ed. 970, (1936); Stone v. Memphis Natural Gas Co., 201 Miss. 670, 29 So. 2d 268 (1947), affirmed in Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Stone, 335 U. S. 80, 68 S. Ct. 1475, 92 L. Ed. 1832 (1947); Southern Package Corporation v. State Tax Commission, 195 Miss. 864, 15 So. 2d 436 (1944); see also State Tax Commission v. Memphis Natural Gas Co., 197 Miss. 583, 19 So. 2d 477 (1944), appeal dismissed in 323 U. S. 682, 65 S. Ct. 440, 89 L. Ed. 553, (apportioned net income tax on interstate gas pipeline company).

Since appellee, Tennessee Gas Transmission Company, contends that Section 9319 is unconstitutional, certain established principles of judicial review should he noted. In determining the constitutionality of a statute, the courts should proceed with the greatest possible caution, and should never declare it void unless invalidity is established beyond a reasonable doubt. They should adopt a construction which will bring the act into harmony with the Constitution, whenever necessary in order to uphold its constitutionality and to carry its provisions into effect. Every intendment is in favor of constitutionality, unless its repugnancy to that document clearly appears. The presumption is in favor of its validity. The propriety, wisdom and expediency [199]*199of the act is a question for the Legislature and not the courts. It will he presumed that the Legislature considered the effect of the statute, and that it acted with an intent to comply with constitutional provisions and a desire to he fair and equitable. Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 178 So. 815, 182 So. 102 (1938).

These same principles are uniformly applied to judicial review of a legislative apportionment formula for the assessment of a tax. Recently in Stapling Machines Company v. Monaghan, 232 Miss. 484, 99 So. 2d 649, 101 So. 2d 359 (1958), this Court reiterated them. The company, engaged in interstate and intrastate commerce, sued to recover income tax. The Commission used an apportionment formula which was affirmed by this Court, stating: “In the case of Butler Bros. v. McColgan, the Supreme Court of the United States in 315 U. S. 501-510, 62 S. Ct. 701-705, 86 L. Ed. 991-997, held that one who attacks a formula of apportionment carries a distinct burden of showing by clear and cogent evidence that it results in extraterritorial values being taxed, and in the same case the Supreme Court of the United States discussed at length the question of the correct apportionment formula and held that if the statute as calling for a method of allocation which is fairly calculated to assign to California that part of the net income reasonably attributable to the business done there, any constitutional question arising from the Fourteenth Amendment is at an end.”

This Court again followed the authoritative statement of Butler Brothers v. McColgan, in McWilliams Dredging Company v. McKeigney, 227 Miss. 730, 86 So. 2d 672, 677, 678 (1956).

51 Am. Jur., Taxation, Sections 862-863, comments as follows about apportionment of state franchise taxes: “. . . it appears to be well established that such a tax is not invalid where it is imposed upon or measured by only the business of the taxpayer transacted within the [200]*200state, by means of some reasonable formula for apportioning the exaction to such business.” See also 84 C. J. S., Taxation, Section 453.

In short, the issue is whether appellee sufficiently met its ‘

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116 So. 2d 550, 239 Miss. 191, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mississippi-state-tax-commission-v-tennessee-gas-transmission-co-miss-1959.