Tranel, Inc. v. Commonwealth

558 A.2d 925, 126 Pa. Commw. 133, 1989 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 351
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 19, 1989
DocketNo. 347 C.D. 1976
StatusPublished

This text of 558 A.2d 925 (Tranel, 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
Tranel, Inc. v. Commonwealth, 558 A.2d 925, 126 Pa. Commw. 133, 1989 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 351 (Pa. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

NARICK, Senior Judge.

Tranel, Inc. (Taxpayer) has petitioned for review of an order of the Board of Finance and Revenue denying its petition to resettle its Pennsylvania corporate income tax for the fiscal year ending August 31,1972 (1972 fiscal year).

The parties have filed a detailed stipulation of facts, which we shall briefly summarize. Taxpayer is a New York corporation which owns two principal assets, a high-rise office building in New York and a high-rise office building in Philadelphia. For the 1972 fiscal year, it reported taxable income of $2,024.19 from the Pennsylvania building, resulting in a tax of $242.90. The Taxpayer maintained separate accounting for the New York and Pennsylvania properties and reported its income to Pennsylvania on a multiform basis. The Department of Revenue determined that the Taxpayer should have been using a unitary basis for taxation purposes, including income of $135,602 from the New York property, and settled Taxpayer’s account by increasing the income to be apportioned between New York and Pennsylvania by that amount. This increase resulted in a corporate income tax liability of $10,793.11.

The Taxpayer employs management companies as agents in both New York and Pennsylvania to manage its properties. The agents' duties are spelled out in separate management contracts and generally include rental of units, collection of rent, payment of expenses and general maintenance. The personnel employed in the maintenance and operation of both properties are employees of the Taxpayer and not employees of either agent.

For the 1972 fiscal year, Taxpayer filed a consolidated return for federal tax purposes. Separate balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and receipts and expenses for the New York and Pennsylvania properties were included. Taxpayer reported its 1972 fiscal year income to New York [136]*136State on a unitary basis, including income earned from its Pennsylvania real estate operations.

The issue we are called upon to decide in this case is whether the Taxpayer is entitled to multiform or unitary tax settlement. The amount of tax due under either method has been stipulated by the parties.

The Commonwealth contends that the taxpayer has not met its burden of proving entitlement to multiform tax settlement.1 While it is clear that a state may not tax value earned outside its borders, see, e.g., Container Corp. v. Franchise Tax Board, 463 U.S. 159, 103 S.Ct. 2933, 77 L.Ed.2d 545 (1983), the Commonwealth argues that apportionment was proper here under the statute involved and upon the facts of this case.

Section 401(3)2.(a) of the Tax Reform Code of 1971 (Tax Code), Act of March 4, 1971, P.L. 6, as amended, 72 P.S. § 7401(3)2.(a) provided for allocation and apportionment of income generated from within and without the Commonwealth according to a formula designed to calculate the portion of a taxpayer’s property, payroll and sales which were attributable to activity within the Commonwealth.2 If the resulting apportionment does not fairly represent the extent of the taxpayer’s business in the Commonwealth, the taxpayer may seek relief under Section 401(3)2.(a)(18), 72 P.S. § 7401(8)2.(a)(18), which allows for separate accounting, and inclusion or exclusion of additional factors or other methods to arrive at an equitable allocation.

Taxpayer here argues that it is entitled to multiform tax treatment because of the local nature of its New York and [137]*137Pennsylvania activities. Such treatment, it argues, fairly reflects the extent of its activities in Pennsylvania.

The Commonwealth counters that unitary treatment is appropriate. “If a company is a unitary-business, then a State may apply an apportionment formula to the taxpayer’s total income in order to obtain a ‘rough approximation’ of the corporate income that is ‘reasonably related to the activities conducted within the taxing State.’ ” Exxon Corp. v. Wisconsin Department of Revenue, 447 U.S. 207, 223, 100 S.Ct. 2109, 2120, 65 L.Ed.2d 66 (1980). There are two constitutional requirements for determining whether apportionment is proper:

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes two requirements for such state taxation: a ‘minimal connection’ or ‘nexus’ between the interstate activities and the taxing State, and ‘a rational relationship between the income attributed to the State and the intrastate values of the enterprise.’ ... The tax cannot be ‘out of all appropriate proportion to the business transacted by the [taxpayer] in that State.’

Id. at 219-20, 100 S.Ct. at 2118-19 (citations omitted).

These requirements were expanded upon by the United States Supreme Court in Container Corp. at 166, 103 S.Ct. at 2940:

At the very least, this set of principles imposes the obvious and largely self-executing limitation that a State not tax a purported ‘unitary business’ unless at least some part of it is conducted in the State____ It also requires that there be some bond of ownership or control uniting the purported ‘unitary business.’ ...
In addition, the principles we have quoted require that the out-of-state activities of the purported ‘unitary business’ be related in some concrete way to the in-state activities. The functional meaning of this requirement is that there be some sharing or exchange of value not capable of precise identification or measurement—beyond the mere flow of funds arising out of a passive investment or a distinct business operation—which renders [138]*138formula apportionment a reasonable method of taxation. (Citations omitted.)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a case pre-dating Container Corp., discussed three factors to be applied in determining whether multiform or unitary treatment is appropriate:

First, if a multistate business enterprise is conducted in a way that one, some or all of the business operations outside Pennsylvania are independent of and do not contribute to the business operations within this State, the factors attributable to the outside activity may be excluded.
Second, in applying the foregoing principle to a particular case, we must focus upon the relationship between the Pennsylvania activity and the outside one, not the common relationships between these and the central corporate structure. Only if the impact of the latter on the operating units or activities is so pervasive as to negate any claim that they function independently from each other do we deny exclusion in this context.
Third, without attempting to preclude exclusion in any given case, we reiterate our statement above that the manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing (or manufacturing and selling) activities of a single enterprise are not fit subjects for division and partial exclusion. On the other hand, a truly divisionalized business,, conducting disparate activities with each division internally integrated with respect to manufacturing and selling, may well be in a position to make a valid claim for exclusion.

Commonwealth v. ACF Industries, Inc., 441 Pa.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Exxon Corp. v. Department of Revenue of Wis.
447 U.S. 207 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Board
463 U.S. 159 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Commonwealth v. Kirby Estates, Inc.
246 A.2d 120 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
Commonwealth v. ACF Industries, Inc.
271 A.2d 273 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)
Commonwealth v. AMERICAN T. & T. CO.
115 A.2d 373 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1955)
Commonwealth v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
382 Pa. 509 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1955)
Commonwealth v. Advance-Wilson Industries, Inc.
317 A.2d 642 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
Commonwealth v. Morewood Realty Corp.
327 A.2d 328 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
Logan Clay Products Co. v. Commonwealth
315 A.2d 346 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
558 A.2d 925, 126 Pa. Commw. 133, 1989 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tranel-inc-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1989.