TTX Co. v. Idaho State Tax Commission

915 P.2d 713, 128 Idaho 483, 1996 Ida. LEXIS 45
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 22, 1996
Docket20525
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 915 P.2d 713 (TTX Co. v. Idaho State Tax Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
TTX Co. v. Idaho State Tax Commission, 915 P.2d 713, 128 Idaho 483, 1996 Ida. LEXIS 45 (Idaho 1996).

Opinions

JOHNSON, Justice, joined by TROUT, Justice,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent from the Court’s opinion. In my view, the Idaho corporate income tax statutes make TTX liable for income tax based on the income from the lease of the rail cars that are used in Idaho. In my view, taxing TTX on this income does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Based on the evidence presented in support of TTX’s motion for summary judgment, there is no basis for a ruling that taxing TTX on this income violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

THE IDAHO INCOME TAX STATUTE APPLIES TO TTX.

In order for income to be classified as “business income,” there must be a direct relationship between the income-generating asset and the taxpayer’s business or trade. American Smelting v. Tax Comm’n, 99 Idaho 924, 933, 592 P.2d 39, 48 (1979). Because TTX’s operations consist almost entirely of the acquisition and disposition of interests in rail cars, the income TTX derives from renting the rail cars is “business income” within the meaning of I.C. § 62-3027(a)(l).

In my view, the Court incorrectly relies on dicta from American Smelting in reaching a contrary conclusion. The Court cites American Smelting as authority for the following principle: “In order to be taxable in this state, some portion of the ‘income arising from transactions and activities’ must arise from transactions and activities conducted in this state.” I first note that this statement is dicta because there was no question in American Smelting about the taxpayer having income from transactions and activities in Idaho. More importantly, the Court attenuates the quotation from American Smelting, and thereby deprives the statement of its true meaning. The full statement from American Smelting reads:

First, the income referred to in [I.C. § 63-3027(a)(l) ] is income arising from the taxpayer’s trade or business which is conducted, in part at least, in this state. Some corporations, particularly large conglomerates, may be engaged in several separate and distinct trades or businesses. The state may include as business income only the taxpayer’s income arising from a trade or business conducted in this state and is not entitled to apportion income arising from a trade or business having no connection with this state.

99 Idaho at 931, 592 P.2d at 46.

It is clear to me that the reference to the state including as business income only the taxpayer’s income arising from a trade or business conducted in this state refers to the [488]*488circumstance stated in the immediately prior sentence: a corporation that engages in several separate and distinct trades or businesses. The reference was not intended to be to a trade or business which is conducted, in part at least, in this state.

I conclude that TTX derived some business income from sources attributable to this state, and would then determine what portion of TTX’s income was “Idaho taxable income” under I.C. § 63-3027(i), which provides:

All business income ... shall be apportioned to this state by multiplying the income by a fraction, the numerator of which is the property factor plus the payroll factor plus the sales factor, and the denominator of which is three (3).

I.C. § 63-3027G).

The property, payroll, and sales factors, defined in I.C. §§ 63-3027(j)-(o), are the ratios between the corporation’s total property, payroll, and sales during the tax period, and that portion of these factors in Idaho during the tax period.

TTX admits to having property in this state during the relevant tax periods, and the tax commission admits that TTX paid no payroll and had no sales in this state during these periods. The tax commission therefore correctly computed the portion of TTX’s taxable income attributable to this state by applying the formula for computing business income set out in I.C. § 63-3027.

TAXING TTX ON INCOME IT RECEIVED FROM PROPERTY IN IDAHO DOES NOT VIOLATE THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE.

In Blangers v. Dept. of Revenue & Taxation, 114 Idaho 944, 763 P.2d 1052 (1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1090, 109 S.Ct. 1557, 103 L.Ed.2d 860 (1989), this Court reviewed at length the substantial nexus requirement of both the Due Process Clause and the Commerce Clause where a state attempts to impose income tax on nonresidents. Four years later, in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298, 112 S.Ct. 1904, 119 L.Ed.2d 91 (1992), a state use tax case, the Supreme Court reiterated established concepts it has employed in measuring whether a state tax imposed on a multi-state corporation passes muster under the Due Process Clause:

The Due Process Clause “requires some definite link, some minimum connection, between a state and the person, property or transaction it seeks to tax,” Miller Bros. Co. v. Maryland, 347 U.S. 340, 344-345, 74 S.Ct. 535, 539, 98 L.Ed. 744 (1954), and that the “income attributed to the State for tax purposes must be rationally related to Values connected with the taxing State.’ ” Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, 437 U.S. 267, 273, 98 S.Ct. 2340, 2344, 57 L.Ed.2d 197 (1978).

Id. at 306, 112 S.Ct. at 1909-10.

The Supreme Court then traced the development of due process jurisprudence in the area of judicial jurisdiction and concluded:

Comparable reasoning justifies the imposition of the collection duty on a mail-order house that is engaged in continuous and widespread solicitation of business within a State. Such a corporation clearly has “fair warning that [its] activity may subject [it] to the jurisdiction of a foreign sovereign.” ... Thus, to the extent that our decisions have indicated that the Due Process Clause requires physical presence in a State for the imposition of duty to collect a use tax, we overrule those holdings as superseded by developments in the law of due process.

Id. at 308, 112 S.Ct. at 1911 (citation omitted).

In Quill, the Supreme Court then distinguished the due process “minimum contacts” test from the Commerce Clause “substantial nexus” test:

Despite the similarity in phrasing, the nexus requirements of the Due Process and Commerce Clauses are not identical. The two standards are animated by different constitutional concerns and policies.
Due process centrally concerns the fundamental fairness of governmental activity. Thus, at the most general level, the due process nexus analysis requires that we ask whether an individual’s connections with a State are substantial enough to legitimate the State’s exercise of power over him. We have, therefore, often iden[489]*489tified “notice” or “fair warning” as the analytic touchstone of due process nexus analysis.

Id.

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Related

Richards v. Idaho State Tax Commission
959 P.2d 457 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1998)
TTX Co. v. Idaho State Tax Commission
915 P.2d 713 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1996)

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Bluebook (online)
915 P.2d 713, 128 Idaho 483, 1996 Ida. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ttx-co-v-idaho-state-tax-commission-idaho-1996.