SHARPER IMAGE v. Dept. of Rev.

704 So. 2d 657, 1997 WL 765638
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 8, 1997
Docket96-3734
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 704 So. 2d 657 (SHARPER IMAGE v. Dept. of Rev.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SHARPER IMAGE v. Dept. of Rev., 704 So. 2d 657, 1997 WL 765638 (Fla. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

704 So.2d 657 (1997)

SHARPER IMAGE CORPORATION, Appellant,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE OF the STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

No. 96-3734.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

December 8, 1997.
Rehearing Denied February 20, 1998.

*658 Thomas J. Jones and Susan L. Turner of Holland & Knight, Tallahassee, and Martin I. Eisenstein of Brann & Isaacson, Lewiston, ME, for Appellant.

Eric J. Taylor and Jarrell L. Murchison of the Office of the Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Cass D. Vickers, H. Michael Madsen and Robert S. Goldman of Vickers, Madsen & Goldman, Tallahassee, for Amicus Curiae Service Merchandise.

KAHN, Judge.

This case involves a tax assessment against appellant, Sharper Image Corporation (Sharper Image), by the Department of Revenue (Department). In 1994, Sharper Image filed suit in circuit court, challenging the Department's assessment of use tax on catalogs published by Sharper Image outside of Florida and sent by Sharper Image's printer directly to Florida residents during the audit period of April 1, 1987, through March 31, 1990. Sharper Image and the Department filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The circuit court granted the Department's motion and denied Sharper Image's motion, entering final summary judgment in the Department's favor. Sharper Image has appealed and raises essentially two points: (1) Sharper Image exercised no taxable privilege with respect to the catalogs in Florida as required by the Florida statute, and (2) the assessment of use taxes on Sharper Image catalogs violates the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the newspaper exemption of section 212.08(7)(w), as applied by the Department, violates the First Amendment, and the religious publication exemption of section 212.06(9) violates the First Amendment.[1] Sharper Image seeks abatement of use taxes assessed against it. We hold that the Department properly assessed a use tax, and that, irrespective of the illegality of the exemptions, Sharper Image is not entitled to the remedy it seeks.

*659 In this case, no dispute exists regarding the facts. Sharper Image is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco. The company makes retail sales of merchandise through both mail and telephone order, and in store sales. During the audit period, Sharper Image maintained seven retail stores in Florida. It collected and remitted to the Department all Florida sales and use taxes due on sales at the Florida stores and on mail order sales to Florida residents.

The challenged use taxes were assessed on Sharper Image's monthly catalog. The catalog was printed and mailed from Nebraska by a contractor selected by Sharper Image. The catalogs were delivered by the United States Postal Service to residents of Florida and other states. Sharper Image stipulated that it intentionally, purposefully, and with the object to increase sales in Florida, distributed or caused to be distributed, the catalogs.

I. Exercise of a Taxable Privilege

First, appellant asserts that Sharper Image exercised no taxable privilege in Florida with respect to the catalogs. According to appellant, the circuit court ignored the requirement under Florida law that a use or distribution of tangible personal property must occur "in this state" to properly trigger the use tax. Further, in arguing that no taxable event has occurred in this case, amicus Service Merchandise asserts that language in section 212.06(1)(a)[2] and section 212.06(6)[3] "make[s] plain the Legislature's design only to tax transactions or activities which occur after the arrival of the property in Florida and its repose here as part of the mass of property." Neither contention will withstand scrutiny.

Section 212.05(1)(b), Florida Statutes (1987), provides: [A] tax is levied on each taxable transaction or incident, which tax is due and payable as follows: ...
(b) At the rate of 5 percent of the cost price of each item or article of tangible personal property when the same is not sold but used, consumed, distributed, or stored for use or consumption in this state.

(emphasis added).[4] Further, section 212.06(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1987), provides:

The aforesaid tax at the rate of 5 percent of the retail sales price as of the moment of sale, 5 percent of the cost price as of the moment of purchase, or 5 percent of the cost price as of the moment of commingling with the general mass of property in this state, as the case may be, shall be collectible from all dealers as herein defined on the sale at retail, the use, the consumption, the distribution, and the storage for use or consumption in this state of tangible personal property or services taxable under this part....

(emphasis added).[5] In our view, the collective import of these statutes is that if tangible personal property is distributed in Florida, it is subject to a use tax. Because Sharper Image distributed tangible personal property, i.e., its catalogs, in Florida, it exercised a taxable privilege in this state and must pay a use tax. The "mass of property" and "moment of commingling" language in sections 212.06(1)(a) and 212.06(6) refers only to valuation of property taxed under the statute and does not impose an additional prerequisite to taxation itself.

Sharper Image also asserts that "for the mailing of promotional materials from outside Florida directly to Florida residents to be a taxable event, a company must engage in activities regarding the production, printing, or mailing of the promotional materials in Florida "and "[t]hat simply did not *660 occur here." The Connecticut Supreme Court has recently rejected a similar argument made by Sharper Image in contesting a use tax assessment on the distribution of its catalogs in that state: "Although Sharper Image neither stored, accepted or consumed the catalogs in this state, it did cause them to be distributed in Connecticut, which satisfies the broad taxable event of `other use'...." Sharper Image, Corp. v. Miller, 240 Conn. 531, 692 A.2d 774, 779 (1997). The Connecticut use tax statute, unlike the Florida statute, does not include the word "distribution." Nevertheless, the Connecticut Supreme Court determined that distribution fell within the plain language of "other use," a term included in the statute. See also Service Merchandise Co. v. Arizona Dep't of Rev., 188 Ariz. 414, 937 P.2d 336 (App.1996) (upholding use tax assessment because distribution of catalogs and fliers in Arizona was use incidental to ownership even though "distribution" not specifically included in statute); cf. Sharper Image Corp. v. Department of Treasury, 216 Mich.App. 698, 550 N.W.2d 596 (1996) (finding no use tax due where use tax statute did not specifically provide for taxation of distributions), appeal denied, 560 N.W.2d 636 (Mich.1997).

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704 So. 2d 657, 1997 WL 765638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharper-image-v-dept-of-rev-fladistctapp-1997.