State Tax Commission v. City of Logan

54 P.2d 1197, 88 Utah 406, 1936 Utah LEXIS 91
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1936
DocketNo. 5675.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 54 P.2d 1197 (State Tax Commission v. City of Logan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Tax Commission v. City of Logan, 54 P.2d 1197, 88 Utah 406, 1936 Utah LEXIS 91 (Utah 1936).

Opinion

ELIAS HANSEN, Chief Justice.

In this action the state tax commission of Utah, hereinafter referred to as the commission, seeks to recover a sales tax from Logan City, hereinafter referred to as the city, for electric energy, generated by a hydroelectric power plant owned and operated by the city, and sold by it to its inhabitants. To the complaint filed by the commission the city demurred generally and specially. The demurrer was sustained. The commission refused to further amend its com *410 plaint, whereupon the action was dismissed. The commission appeals. It assigns as error the order sustaining the demurrer and the judgment dismissing the action. The commission claims authority to collect the sales tax in controversy pursuant to the provisions of Laws of Utah 1933, c. 63, as amended by Laws of Utah 1933, Second Special Session, c. 20. Both the constitutionality and the construction of the statutes levying a sales tax are brought in question. We quote those portions of the act which bear upon the questions which divide the parties to this controversy. The title of Laws of Utah 1933, c. 63, is as follows:

“An act to Provide for the Raising of Revenue for Emergency Purposes by imposing a Tax Upon the Retail Purchase of Certain Commodities, Admissions and Services and for the Ascertainment, Assessment and Collection of Said Taxes; to Provide for the Distribution of Said Revenue and to Provide Penalties for the Violation of the Terms of This Act.”

The act contains among its provisions the following:

Section 4, subd. (b) thereof:

“Prom and after the thirty-first day of May, 1933, there is hereby levied and there shall be collected and paid. * * *
“A tax equivalent to three-quarters (-14) of one (1) per cent of the amount paid for all services rendered or commodities furnished for domestic or commercial consumption by any utility of the state of Utah.”

Section 2, subd. (i):

“The term ‘utility’ as herein used, shall be construed to mean any utility under the jurisdiction of the public utilities commission.”
Section 5: “Every person receiving any payment or consideration upon a sale of property or service subject to the tax under the provisions of this act, or to whom such payment or consideration is payable (hereinafter called the vendor) shall be responsible for the collection of the amount of the tax imposed on said sale and shall, on or before the fifteenth day of each month, make a return to the state tax commission for the preceding month and shall remit the taxes so collected to the state tax commission. Such returns shall contain such information and be made in such manner as the state tax commission may *411 by regulation prescribe. The state tax commission may extend the time for making returns and paying the taxes collected under such rules and regulations as it may prescribe, but no such extension shall be for more than ninety days.”
Section 8: “As soon as practicable after the return is filed, the tax commission shall examine it; if it then appears that the correct amount of tax to be remitted is greater or less than that shown in the return to be due, the tax shall be recomputed. If the amount paid exceeds that which is due, the excess shall be credited against any subsequent remittance from the same person. If the amount paid is less than the amount due, the difference, together with interest thereon at the rate of one-half of one per cent per month from the time the return was due, shall be paid by the vendor ten days after notice and demand to him from the tax commission.
“If any part of the deficiency is due to negligence or intentional disregard of authorized rules and regulations with knowledge thereof, but without intent to defraud, there shall be added ten per cent of the total amount of the deficiency and interest in such a case shall be collected at the rate of one per cent per month on the amount of such deficiency from the time the return was due, from the person required to file the return, which interest and additions shall become due and payable ten days after notice and demand to him by the commission. If any part of the deficiency is due to fraud with the intent to evade, then there shall be added not more than one hundred per cent of the total amount of the deficiency and in such case, the whole amount of the tax unpaid, including the additions, shall become due and payable ten days after notice and demand by the tax commission and an additional one per cent per month on said amount shall be added from the date the same was due until paid.”
Section 9: “It shall be the duty of every person engaging or continuing, in this state, in any business for the transaction of which a license is required under this act, to keep and preserve suitable records of all sales made by him and such other books- or accounts as may be necessary to determine the amount of tax for the collection of which he is liable under the provisions of this act. It shall be the duty of every such person to keep and preserve for a period of three years all invoices of goods and merchandise purchased for resale and all such books, invoices and other records shall be open for examination at any time by the tax commission or its duly authorized agent. If no return is made by any person required to make returns as provided herein, the tax commission shall give written notices by mail post paid to such person to make such return within thirty days of the date of such notice and if such person shall fail or refuse to make *412 such return as he may be required to make in such notice, then such return shall be made by the tax commission from the best information available and such return shall be prima facie correct for the purposes of this act, and the amount of the tax due thereon shall be deemed a deficiency and subject to the addition of penalties and interest as provided in section 8 hereof.”
Section 11: “A tax due and unpaid under this act shall constitute a debt due the state from the vendor and may be collected, together with interest, penalty and costs, by appropriate judicial proceeding, which remedy shall be in addition to all other existing remedies.”
Section 12: “If any person, having made a return and paid the tax provided by this act, feels aggrieved by the assessment made upon him by the tax commission, he may apply to the tax commission by petition in writing within ten days after the notice is mailed to him for a hearing and a correction of the amount of the tax so assessed, in which petition he shall set forth the reasons why such hearing should be granted and the amount by which such tax should be reduced. The tax commission shall notify the petitioner of the time and place fixed by it for such hearing. After such hearing, the tax commission may make such order in the matter as may appear to it just and lawful and shall furnish a copy of such order to the petitioner.”

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Bluebook (online)
54 P.2d 1197, 88 Utah 406, 1936 Utah LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-tax-commission-v-city-of-logan-utah-1936.