NCR Corp. v. Taxation & Revenue Department

856 P.2d 982, 115 N.M. 612
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 6, 1993
Docket13035
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 856 P.2d 982 (NCR Corp. v. Taxation & Revenue Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NCR Corp. v. Taxation & Revenue Department, 856 P.2d 982, 115 N.M. 612 (N.M. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

DONNELLY, Judge.

NCR Corporation (NCR) appeals from an administrative decision and order of the State Taxation and Revenue Department (Department), denying NCR’s challenge to four separate deficiency assessments of corporate income tax, penalty, and interest. It contends that (1) the Foreign Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution prohibits New Mexico from imposing a corporate income tax upon NCR’s foreign source royalty, interest, and dividend income; (2) the Due Process Clause, Amendment XIV of the United States Constitution prohibits New Mexico from taxing an apportioned share of NCR’s Subpart F income; and (3) the Due Process Clauses of the state 1 and federal constitutions require that New Mexico modify its apportionment formula as it relates to NCR. We affirm the decision and order of the administrative hearing officer entered below; we remand, however, for determination of the amount of credits due for taxes previously paid by NCR.

FACTS

The Department issued corporate income tax assessments against NCR for taxes due in 1981 through 1987, totalling approximately $439,681.80, plus interest and penalties. The assessments principally relate to income earned outside the United States by NCR and its foreign subsidiaries. NCR protested each of the assessments and its challenges were consolidated for hearing before a hearing officer on August 29, 1990.

The parties stipulated, inter alia, that NCR was incorporated in Maryland and maintains its corporate headquarters and principal place of business in Ohio. NCR is engaged in the manufacture of business equipment, computers, and machinery, and sells its products, supplies, and services at wholesale and retail world-wide. It conducts its businesses in foreign countries either directly or through its foreign subsidiaries and branches, through the ownership of stock in foreign subsidiaries, through ownership of patents and license agreements with foreign subsidiaries, and through loan agreements. NCR does not contest New Mexico’s taxation of its branch income. The operation of NCR’s foreign subsidiaries and its foreign branches is nearly identical. All significant operating decisions for both branches and subsidiaries are made at NCR’s corporate headquarters in the United States. The royalties, interest, and dividends received by NCR from its foreign subsidiaries were treated as gross income of NCR. Either NCR or its foreign subsidiars were subject to tax on the income earned in the host country.

During the years in question, NCR had seventeen manufacturing facilities throughout the world; each was operated either directly by NCR or through a subsidiary. During this same time period, NCR conducted business in all fifty states, including New Mexico. NCR had ten domestic subsidiaries, approximately seventy-five foreign subsidiaries, and eighteen foreign branches. Approximately 70% of all products sold by NCR are manufactured in the United States and shipped overseas. NCR does business essentially through its domestic and foreign subsidiaries operating together as a fully-integrated unitary business and, except for its Japanese subsidiary, NCR owns 100% of the stock of its other foreign subsidiaries.

The income tax assessed by the Department against NCR during the applicable time periods was based upon an apportionment formula utilized by the state and which apportioned a share of NCR’s total income as reported to the federal government. To calculate the amount of tax due, the Department took NCR’s reported federal taxable income, deducted foreign dividend gross-up, income from United States obligations, and non-business income allocated to other states, and then apportioned NCR's New Mexico income in accordance with the statutory formula specified by the Uniform Division of Income for Tax Purposes Act (UDITPA). NMSA 1978, §§ 7-4-1 to -21 (Repl.Pamp.1990). The Department then imposed an apportioned income tax by taxing NCR’s unitary business income. 2

The tax imposed by the Department, subject to certain deductions, is levied on a percentage basis determined by comparing NCR’s New Mexico business income to the remainder of its business. This formula resulted in a tax apportionment factor, which varied depending on the applicable year, of between 0.3307% and 0.2207% of NCR’s annual federal taxable income.

Following the administrative hearing, the hearing officer disallowed NCR’s protest of each of the tax assessments imposed by the Department, except insofar as NCR protested the inclusion of a portion of its Sub-part F income which was previously taxed in New Mexico, and except for allowance of a deduction for previous tax payments made by NCR for the tax years in question.

I. Foreign Commerce Clause

NCR contends that the Foreign Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution bars imposition of New Mexico’s corporate income tax upon a proportionate share of NCR’s corporate income received in the form of royalties, interest, and dividends from its foreign subsidiaries, and which is earned in, and subject to taxation by, foreign countries. In advancing this argument, NCR argues that allocation of-NCR’s corporate income to a single situs and apportionment is constitutionally prohibited under the Foreign Commerce Clause, and that New Mexico’s apportionment formula results in impermissible multiple international taxation and contravenes national policy.

NCR asserts that New Mexico’s statutory apportionment formula is prohibited under the Foreign Commerce Clause because Section 7-4-10 must be read to require inclusion of its entire property, payroll, and sales of its dividend, royalty, and interest-paying foreign subsidiaries in calculating the denominator of the apportionment factor applied to the taxable portion of its foreign income. Thus, it contends the tax in question is a tax on its foreign subsidiaries. We do not believe the statute or its application in the instant case offends the Foreign Commerce Clause. Reading Sections 7-4-10, -11, -14, and -16 together, in light of the provisions of UDITPA, we think, evinces a clear legislative intent to impose the tax on the property, payroll, and sales of the unitary business of the “taxpayer.” In this case the “taxpayer” is NCR, not its foreign subsidiaries. See Giant Indus. Ariz., Inc. v. Taxation & Revenue Dep’t, 110 N.M. 442, 445, 796 P.2d 1138, 1141 (Ct.App.1990) (fundamental purpose of statutory interpretation is to further legislative intent and purpose).

New Mexico utilizes a three-factor apportionment formula as set forth in UDITPA. A majority of states, including New Mexico, have adopted UDITPA, or a variation of such uniform legislation. Barclays Bank Inti, Ltd. v. Franchise Tax Bd., 2 Cal.4th 708, 8 Cal.Rptr.2d 31, 34, 829 P.2d 279, 282 (1992) (en banc); see also 1 State Tax Guide ¶ 10-110, at 1061-63 (Commerce Clearing House, 2d ed. 1991); 4 Zolman Cavitch, Business Organizations § 79.04, at 79-29 (1992); see generally Larry D.

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856 P.2d 982, 115 N.M. 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ncr-corp-v-taxation-revenue-department-nmctapp-1993.