Rock Island Refining Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Commission

1943 OK 429, 145 P.2d 194, 193 Okla. 468, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 436
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided December 21, 1943·No. No. 31555.·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

GIBSON, V. C. J.

This action was instituted in district court by Rock Island Refining Company pursuant to statutory authority against Oklahoma Tax Commission to recover certain income taxes paid under protest.

The taxes in question represented additional assessments made against plaintiff for each of the years 1939, 1940, and 1941.

The plaintiff, acting upon the theory that its income for those years was derived both from intrastate and interstate business within the meaning of 68 O. S. 1941 § 876, proceeded by statutory formula (68 O. S. 1941 § 878) to allocate for taxation in Oklahoma only the portion thereof attributable to business *469 transacted wholly within the state, and submitted each of its annual returns accordingly.

The commission disagreed with that theory and proceeded to make an additional assessment for each of said years to include the net income from that portion of the business said by plaintiff to be interstate commerce.

The cause was submitted orí an agreed statement of facts wherein it is shown that plaintiff is a domestic corporation with its principal place of business at Duncan. It operates an oil refinery near that city, and owns no property outside this state. It markets its products both here and in other states.

According to the stipulation, all sales were consummated through the aid of plaintiff’s traveling agents who solicited orders and forwarded the same to plaintiff at Duncan for approval and acceptance. Upon acceptance of orders the products were delivered to the common carrier consigned to the customers f.o.b. the refinery. Title passed to the purchaser on delivery to the carrier. Payment of the purchase price, was made direct to plaintiff by remittance through the mails. The agents had no authority to enter into binding contracts with customers. They were limited to soliciting and taking orders.

The amount of plaintiff’s net income for each of said years was also agreed upon; and the allocation as made by plaintiff was correct in event the circumstances permitted statutory allocation.

Plaintiff charges that the commission, in making the additional assessment for said years, and refusing to approve the allocation, and denying its right to apportionment as aforesaid, acted arbitrarily and in violation of the Oklahoma Income Tax Law (68 O. S. 1941, ch. 21), and directly contrary to section 876, supra, a portion of said law; that the denial of the apportionment, and making the additional assessments against the net income so allocated by plaintiff to interstate business, operated to deprive plaintiff of its property without due process of law, and was in violation of the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States as a direct burden on interstate commerce (14th Amendment; sec. 8, art. 1).

The controversy involves principally the interpretation and application of section 876, supra. The material portion thereof reads as follows:

“A tax is hereby levied upon every person as defined in Section 4 (b), which tax shall be collected and paid, for each taxable year, upon, and with respect to, the entire net income of such person, which is derived from all property owned and/or business transacted within this State. And a like tax is hereby levied upon every person as defined in Section 4 (b), which tax shall be collected and paid, for each taxable year, upon, and with respect to, the entire net income of such person which is derived from all property owned partly within and partly without this State and/or business done partly within and partly without this State (commonly known as interstate business), such income derived from property owned partly within and partly without this State and/or business transacted partly within and partly without this State, upon which said tax is hereby levied, to be determined or allocated under the formula or formulae as provided in Section 8 of this Act.”

Section 8 therein referred to is now section 878 of Title 68, above.

Plaintiff contends that although the levy is made to extend to the net income of the taxpayer derived from business done both within and without the state, the language employed in section 876 nevertheless reveals a clear intention on the part of the Legislature to allow deductions, or to exclude from the income to which the assessment shall extend, all net income derived from interstate business regardless of where the sales were consummated, whether here or elsewhere. Those products, says plaintiff, that were shipped to customers outside the state moved in interstate commerce; the shipments constituted “business done partly within and partly without this state (commonly known as in *470 terstate business),” within the meaning of said section.

Plaintiff insists that the Legislature, proceeding with due regard to the commerce clause aforesaid, has provided that the portion of the net income of a taxpayer derived from business “commonly known as interstate business” shall be deducted from his total net income through the process of statutory allocation, thereby measuring his tax by the total net income less so much thereof as was derived from the sale of goods moving in interstate commerce.

It is plaintiff’s specific contention that its entire net income for the years here involved fell within that class defined in section 876 as net income derived from business done partly within and partly without the state, and, in construing the act as a whole, it was not the intention of the Legislature to subject all such net income to the tax, but to allocate to Oklahoma for taxation only so much thereof as was not derived from interstate commerce.

It is the method employed by the commission in this case for the enforcement of the act that will allegedly result in violation of plaintiff’s constitutional' safeguard; the act itself is not so attacked.

It is said that if the assessment on the net income from -interstate shipments stands, the commission will be levying a tax without jurisdictional power, and will thereby deprive plaintiff of its property without due process of law, and, in addition to that objection, the tax will constitute a direct burden on interstate commerce in violation of section 8, art. 1, supra.

It is stipulated that if the circumstances of this case present a situation wherein allocation is authorized, the manner in which plaintiff’s business was conducted would make impracticable a direct allocation to Oklahoma of any portion of the net income, and that the method of allocation as adopted by plaintiff in its annual returns was proper.

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Rock Island Refining Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 1943 OK 429, 145 P.2d 194, 193 Okla. 468, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 436 (Okla. 1943).

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