Chronicle Publishers, Inc. v. South Carolina Tax Commission, 18204
| Citation | 244 S.C. 192,136 S.E.2d 261 |
| Decision Date | 29 April 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 18204,18204 |
| Parties | The CHRONICLE PUBLISHERS, INC., Respondent, v. SOUTH CAROLINA TAX COMMISSION, Appellant. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina |
Daniel R. McLeod, Atty. Gen., James M. Windham, Asst. Atty. Gen., Columbia, for appellant.
Murchison, West & Marshall, Camden, for respondent.
This is an appeal by the South Carolina Tax Commission from a judgment in favor of The Chronicle Publishers, Inc., for a sum assessed against it as additional income tax and paid under protest. The sole issue is whether the taxpayer has 'established a new business or industry in this State,' within the meaning of Section 65-259(12), which we quote.
'With respect only to taxpayers who have established a new business or industry in this State during the calendar year 1955 and thereafter, * * *, there shall be allowed as a deduction from gross income a net operating loss carry-over under the following rules:
Prior to March 3, 1956, a corporation known as The Camden Chronicle, Inc., published a newspaper in Camden, South Carolina, and engaged in a printing business. On that date this corporation sold all of its assets to the plaintiff corporation, which had been chartered by the Secretary of State on March 1. The plaintiff corporation converted the newspaper from a bi-weekly to a ari-weekly and continued to publish it. It bought and installed about $50,000.00 worth of new equipment and enlarged the printing business. There was no identity of officers, directors or stockholders between the two corporations. The key personnel from the newspaper left their employment and established a rival newspaper. So far as the record discloses there was no hiatus in the publication of the newspaper or in the operation of the printing business when the ownership and management changed hands.
The court below found that the legislative intent was to benefit 'a taxpayer who has invested in a business different from that which he has previously been engaged.' It being admitted that plaintiff was a new corporation and that the venture was new to its stockholders, the application of this criterion naturally resulted in exemption. But this is not the language of the statute, which must be given its plain, ordinary meaning...
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