Young Electric Sign Co. v. Utah State Tax Commission

291 P.2d 900, 4 Utah 2d 242, 1955 Utah LEXIS 212
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1955
Docket8383
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 291 P.2d 900 (Young Electric Sign Co. v. Utah State Tax Commission) 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
Young Electric Sign Co. v. Utah State Tax Commission, 291 P.2d 900, 4 Utah 2d 242, 1955 Utah LEXIS 212 (Utah 1955).

Opinions

WADE, Justice.

This case is here on a writ to review a deficiency assessment for sales taxes for the period from July 1, 1950, to June 30, 1953, by the defendant State Tax Commission against the two plaintiffs corporations, Young Electric Sign Co. and Young Electric Sign Co., Inc. Both corporations do the same kind of business and the books and records of both are kept at the office of the Young Electric Co. in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the same method of accounting is used for both. The questions involved pertain to both companies so no distinction as to either will be made in this opinion hereafter.

The business of the plaintiffs consisted of the manufacture and sale of electric signs and parts thereof, the manufacture and rental of electric signs and the maintenance and repair of electric signs, both those manufactured and sold or rented by the plaintiffs or by others. There is no dispute between plaintiffs and defendant as to the taxes chargeable on the direct sales of signs and sign parts or on maintenance agreements by plaintiffs and owners of signs either manufactured by them or others. The disagreement centers on plain[244]*244tiffs’ rental agreements and options and rewrites thereof and on repair sales.

The commission ordered that on maintenance agreements the measure of the tax on parts and materials used in fulfilling these agreements should be 2% of. the cost to the plaintiffs, on repair sales it should be the “2% of the fair selling price of the parts and materials used if separately stated on the hill to the customer, and, if not separately stated, 2% of the total billing” and on the rental agreements it should be 2% of the total rents received and that rental agreements included all options and rewrites.

It is plaintiffs’ contention that the tax commission erred in assessing the “repair sales” at 2% of the billing to the customer. The commission ruled, however, that if plaintiffs separated the cost of materials from the charges for repairs in its billings to the customers, then, the tax would be on 2% of the fair selling price of the parts and materials. It was stipulated that the cost of the materials used was a minor part of the total billing for repair sales and that plaintiffs do not bill customers separately for labor and materials. However, cost records are kept by plaintiffs and it was agreed that the fair sales price of these materials is cost plus a 100% markup. It was further stipulated and agreed that “the proper measure of the tax to be charged for the materials used in maintaining and repairing signs under maintenance agreements should be the same as is charged for those materials used under ‘repair sales.’ ”

Repair sales are those repairs made by plaintiffs on signs not belonging to them and riot covered by one of their maintenance agreements, where the customer calls in for such service and plaintiffs’ personnel and equipment go out and repair the sign, using what materials may he necessary. Such a customer is billed a lump sum, even though costs are kept separately in plaintiffs’ books. The total billed for repair sales by one of the plaintiffs amounted to approximately $245,000, and the cost of materials used came to about $14,700, which is about 6% of the total amount charged. In Western Leather & Finding Co. v. State Tax Comm., 87 Utah 227, 48 P.2d 526, 529; this court held that whether a sales tax was payable by a “wholesaler” depended upon whether the sale was made to the ultimate consumer or to a “retailer” for resale to a consumer. Mr. Justice Wolfe in a special concurring opinion pointed out that in borderline cases it was difficult to determine whether a sale as contemplated by our Sales Tax Act when made by a wholesaler to someone who used it in connection with repairs was one which was made to a retailer for resale to a consumer or was a sale to the ultimate consumer. As it is clear our Act contemplated that wholesale sales were sales of “articles which were sold through wholesalers to persons for resale to those who actually used them, and contemplated a retailer as someone who sold goods from stock as such and not the person who furnishes material in connection with repairs.” Justice Wolfe also pointed [245]*245out that in determining whether or not goods used in connection with repairs were resales to an ultimate consumer depended upon whether the goods used were mere incidentals as compared to the service performed. If they were mere incidentals and the value of the articles used was so small as compared to the value of the services, such contribution of the articles to the services could not be considered a sale under the maxim that the law does not notice trifling matters.

In the instant case the cost to the sign company of the materials used was about 6% of the total charge for the repairs. The Commission found that the materials used were a substantial part of the price paid for the services “and therefore more than incidental to the services rendered when compared to the total price charged by the company to the owner of the sign for the repair” and that the “fair sales price of those materials is cost plus 100% markup;” which means that the materials used in the repairs cost the company about 6% of the amount charged the customer, but the Commission found that the fair market value of the materials was about 12% of the cost of the charge to the customer. Whether this is stated one way or the other, the substance is the same, and our problem is to determine whether these were sales of materials under the Act, or whether the furnishing of materials was merely incidental to the furnishing of services for which the charge to the customers was actually made. What the customers were obtaining from the companies were principally services and not goods. The customers did not obtain the right of possession or use of the sign as a result of such repair; they were the owners of the signs before the repairs were made. In our opinion, it would be unreasonable to find under these conditions that the materials represented a substantial portion of the outlay, and that their use was more than merely incidental to the services rendered. The Commission erred in assessing taxes on “repair sales.”

Plaintiffs also contend that the Commission erred in holding that the total receipts from rental agreements were subject to the sales tax because over 50% of those receipts were charged for repairs and maintenance which are not taxable as sales. We cannot agree with this. Although it was stipulated that rental agreements “are contracts under which the company agrees to construct a given sign for the customer, install it on his premises, and maintain and repair it for the period of the agreement, and the customer agrees to pay therefore a fixed monthly charge * * * ” which charge is determined by figuring what the cash sales price of the sign would be plus what would be charged for repairs and maintenance for the period of the contract. Sec. 59-15-2, subsec. (g), U.C.A.1953, specifically provides that:

“When right to continuous possession or use of any article of tangible personal property is granted under a [246]*246lease or contract and such transfer of possession would be taxable if an outright sale were made, such lease or contract shall be considered the sale of such article and the tax shall be computed and paid by the vendor or lessor upon the rentals paid.’’ (Emphasis ours.)

This statute is not ambiguous.

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Young Electric Sign Co. v. Utah State Tax Commission
291 P.2d 900 (Utah Supreme Court, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
291 P.2d 900, 4 Utah 2d 242, 1955 Utah LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-electric-sign-co-v-utah-state-tax-commission-utah-1955.