PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commonwealth

681 A.2d 832, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 259
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 19, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 681 A.2d 832 (PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commonwealth, 681 A.2d 832, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 259 (Pa. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinions

PELLEGRINI, Judge.

Before this court are exceptions filed by PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) pursuant to Pa. R.A.P. 1571(i) to a panel decision of this court filed November 3, 1995, affirming the order of the Board of Finance and Revenue (Board). In that case, PPG sought review of the Board’s order resettling its capital stock tax for the year 1983 by applying the manufacturing exemption for capital stock to only that portion of PPG’s corporate headquarters which is related to manufacturing within the state.

PPG is a Pennsylvania corporation with its corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. It is in the business of manufacturing or fabricating glass, fiberglass, chlor-alkali chemicals, coatings and paint. During 1983, the tax year at issue, activities at the corporate headquarters included the administration of manufacturing facilities located both within the Commonwealth and outside of the Commonwealth, and other operations not related to manufacturing.

For its 1983 capital stock taxes, PPG reported a tax of $362,765, based on the taxable value of its capital stock which is found by [833]*833multiplying the value of the stock by an apportionment factor, that is, the average of the proportion of Pennsylvania payroll, property and sales to total payroll, property and sales. Auditors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Revenue (Department) determined that a greater portion of PPG’s corporate headquarters payroll and property were taxable. At resettlement, the resulting capital stock tax assessed by the Department was $716,250. PPG appealed the Department’s resettlement of the capital stock taxes to the Board. The Board agreed with the Department’s resettlement and PPG then filed its appeal to this court.

PPG contended that under Section 602(a) of the Tax Reform Code of 1971 (Tax Reform Code),1 the Department erred in exempting from taxation only that portion of the corporate headquarters payroll and property that was deemed by the Department to be devoted to in-state “manufacturing, processing, research or development” (manufacturing). Disagreeing not only with PPG’s interpretation of Section 602(a), the Department contended that Section 602(a) doesn’t even apply to PPG, but rather Section 602(b)(1) of the Tax Reform Code, 72 P.S. § 7602(b)(1),2 is appropriate. PPG also contended that the Department’s application of the manufacturing exemption violated the Commerce Clause3 and the Equal Protection Clause 4 of the United States Constitution and the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.5

This court, in its previous panel decision, held that the Department properly limited PPG’s manufacturing exemption to that portion of the corporate headquarters that is related to manufacturing within the state. Because PPG submitted its tax report utilizing the three-factor apportionment method of calculating capital stock tax, stated in Section 602(b)(1) of the Tax Reform Code, 72 P.S. § 7602(b)(1), we held that it elected to be treated as if it were a foreign entity subject to all of the provisions of the franchise tax under Section 602(b)(1). See Commonwealth v. After Six, Inc., 489 Pa. 69, 413 A.2d 1017 (1980). We agreed with the Department that the plain language of Section 602(b)(1) states that the manufacturing exemption only applies to in-state manufacturing because it states that in the three-factor apportionment, the manufacturing exemption is computed by eliminating from the numerator of the three factors:

[A]ny property, payroll or sales attributable to manufacturing, processing, re[834]*834search or development activities in the Commonwealth.

72 P.S. § 7602(b)(1) (emphasis added). Accordingly, we concluded that only manufacturing in the Commonwealth or that portion of the corporate headquarters attributable to manufacturing in the Commonwealth is properly exempted.

This court also held previously that the Department’s application of the manufacturing exemption did not violate either the Commerce Clause, the Equal Protection Clause or the Pennsylvania Uniformity Clause. As to the Commerce Clause, PPG’s argument was that the manufacturing exemption has the discriminatory effect of treating other corporations with their headquarters in Pennsylvania and a greater proportion of manufacturing in Pennsylvania more favorably, by exempting more of the corporate headquarters. Distinguishing Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Tully, 466 U.S. 388, 403, 104 5.Ct. 1856, 1865-66, 80 L.Ed.2d 388 (1984), because, in that case, local parent companies were given an advantage against out-of-state companies in proportion to the exports the companies moved through the state, and applying the test established in Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 1076, 51 L.Ed.2d 326 (1977), we held that there is no discriminatory effect on interstate commerce because there is no incidence of interstate commerce that is burdened or discriminated against by the apportionment method used in this case.6

As to the Equal Protection Clause or the Pennsylvania Uniformity Clause, we reasoned that the Department’s application of the manufacturing exemption did not violate the constitutional provisions because the tax exemption does not establish an unreasonable classification. See Leventhal v. City of Philadelphia, 518 Pa. 233, 542 A.2d 1328 (1988). The only classification asserted by PPG is one between Pennsylvania corporations, with their headquarters in the state, based on whether they perform a substantial amount of manufacturing outside of the state. Neither the capital stock tax nor the manufacturing exemption make such a classification. All corporations with manufacturing in the state are entitled to an exemption based on in-state manufacturing.7

As summarized above and for the additional reasons explained in our previous memorandum opinion, we rejected PPG’s arguments and affirmed the order of the Board. PPG filed exceptions which were argued before the court en banc.8 PPG’s exceptions, however, raise the same arguments that were put forth before the panel, with the exception of its reliance on a recent United States Supreme Court ease for its allegation that the Department’s application of the manufacturing exemption violates the Commerce Clause. Because the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Fulton Corporation v. Faulkner, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 848, 133 L.Ed.2d 796 (1996), was decided after our initial decision, we will readdress the Commerce Clause issue.

PPG contends that the Department’s method of applying the capital stock tax violates the Commerce Clause because it dis[835]*835criminates against interstate commerce in the same way as the personal property tax deduction in Fulton Corp. In Fulton Corp.,

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Related

PPG Industries v. BD. OF FINANCE & REVENUE
790 A.2d 261 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2001)

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681 A.2d 832, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ppg-industries-inc-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1996.