United States Tobacco Co. v. Commonwealth

348 A.2d 755, 22 Pa. Commw. 211, 1975 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1385
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 5, 1975
DocketAppeal, No. 1516 C.D. 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 348 A.2d 755 (United States Tobacco Co. 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
United States Tobacco Co. v. Commonwealth, 348 A.2d 755, 22 Pa. Commw. 211, 1975 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1385 (Pa. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge Crumlish, Jr.,

Presently before us is a de novo appeal from a decision and order of the Board of Finance and Revenue sustaining the settlement and order of the Resettlement Board1 imposing the Corporation Income Tax2 upon the [213]*213United States Tobacco Company (Appellant) for its reporting period ending December 31, 1971. For the reasons hereinafter stated we affirm.

Appellant is a New Jersey corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of tobacco products sold exclusively in interstate commerce and in part to Pennsylvania customers. No company manufacturing plants are maintained in Pennsylvania, and no offices, bank accounts, company records or corporate meetings are within the Commonwealth. Appellant’s sole relevant contact with Pennsylvania, for the taxable period in question, was through so-called missionary representatives whose function is dispositive of the question of sufficient nexus for imposition of this tax.

Appellant’s attack upon the settlement is framed as follows:

1. The imposition of Corporation Income Tax against Appellant, a corporation engaged solely in interstate commerce activities within Pennsylvania, premised upon the sales solicitation activities of its missionary representatives is violative of Act of September 14, 1959, 15 U.S.C. §381 et seq. and the Commerce and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution.

[214]*2142. The add back of corporation income tax, after apportionment of Appellant’s Pennsylvania income tax liability is invalid in that no statutory authority exists for such an add back, in that it results in the taxation of more of a corporation’s income than is reasonably related to Pennsylvania activity, in that it discriminates against multistate corporations and it unconstitutionally taxes gross income to the extent of the add back.

I — NEXUS

Section 502 of the Code, 72 P.S. §7502, which defines imposition of the Corporation Income Tax states:

“Every corporation carrying on activities within this Commonwealth or owning property in this Commonwealth by or in the name of itself or any person . . . shall be subject to and shall pay a State property tax on taxable income derived from sources within this Commonwealth.”

The incidence of this property tax measure falls upon the taxable income derived from sources within the Commonwealth; however, crucial to the imposition of this tax is that the corporation be carrying on activities sufficient to establish a nexus enabling constitutional exaction of the tax; or phrased differently, our inquiry must ultimately confront the question of whether the Commonwealth has given anything for which it can ask in return, afforded protections or conferred benefits to establish a sufficient nexus to subject Appellant to taxation. Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, 358 U.S.450 (1959).

Both the Commonwealth and Appellant have extensively reviewed the unfolding liberalization of the law as it relates to state taxation of foreign corporations with varying degrees of connection with the taxing state. It may be beneficial for the disposition of the instant case to briefly review the law in this somewhat complex area.

Our inquiry begins with Roy Stone Transfer Corp. v. Messner, 377 Pa. 234, 103 A.2d 700 (1955), where the [215]*215taxpayer, a foreign corporation, engaged exclusively in interstate commerce, having neither tangible or intangible property in Pennsylvania, nor any contracts, orders or solicitation within the Commonwealth, but, having merely the drivers of its trucks present in the state, successfully attacked, as unconstitutional as applied to it, the Corporation Income Tax of 1951. Clearly, the Court believed that at that time no nexus existed which would justify imposition of the tax. However, following Roy Stone, our Supreme Court decided Commonwealth v. Eastman-Kodak Company, 385 Pa. 607, 124 A.2d 100 (1956), wherein under a similar factual posture, notwithstanding the fact that the taxpayer had employees,using company cars and soliciting business within the Commonwealth, the Court found Roy Stone controlling upholding the position of the taxpayer.

Next, Commonwealth v. United States Tobacco Company, 70 Dauph. 217 (1957) was decided. There the taxpayer was the self same as in the present action, and that court held that the taxpayer engaging in the same practices, then as now, was doing nothing more than the taxpayer in Eastman and, therefore, held U.S. Tobacco Company not subject to tax under the Corporation Income Tax Law. Then came the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, supra3 In Northwestern States Portland Cement, the constitutionality of two separate state taxing statutes was in issue. In the first, Minnesota attempted to tax a foreign corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of cement where the foreign corporation leased an office and staffed it with a manager, two salesmen and a secretary, and where those salesmen used company cars to solicit orders which were subject to acceptance and delivery by the home office. The second case involved a Georgia tax measure imposing a tax upon [216]*216foreign corporations, and was factually similar to the Minnesota case. The Supreme Court there stated, citing from its prior opinion in Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co., 311 U.S. 435 (1940):

“ [T]he 'controlling question is whether the state has given anything for which it can ask in return.’ Since by the practical operation of [the] tax the state has exerted its power in relation to opportunities which it has given, to protection which it has afforded, to benefits which it has conferred . . .’ it 'is free to pursue its own fiscal policies, unembarrassed by the Constitution.’ ” Northwestern Portland Cement, supra, 358 U.S. at 465.

By validating the state taxing statutes involved, the Supreme Court immeasurably broadened the power of the state to tax foreign corporations engaged exclusively in interstate commerce with the most minimal of connections to the taxing state.4 Seemingly in response thereto, [217]*217Congress enacted Act of September 14, 1959, 15 U.S.C. §381 et seq., which, in general, prohibited a state from imposing a net income tax upon a corporation engaged in interstate commerce within the state, where that business activity resulted from mere solicitation,5

Therefore, upon review of the law of state taxation of foreign corporations, engaged in interstate commerce, it becomes clear that up to this point in time the pivotal question was whether there was a situation in which the missionary men of Appellant merely solicited business or, whether a

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Related

United States Tobacco Co. v. Commonwealth
386 A.2d 471 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
348 A.2d 755, 22 Pa. Commw. 211, 1975 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-tobacco-co-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1975.