Commissioner of Revenue v. Globe Automatic Vending Co., Inc.
| Citation | 421 N.E.2d 1213,383 Mass. 886 |
| Parties | COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE v. GLOBE AUTOMATIC VENDING CO., INC. |
| Decision Date | 05 June 1981 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts |
Maureen L. Fox, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Commissioner of revenue.
Louis A. Guidry, Boston, for taxpayer.
Before HENNESSEY, C. J., and WILKINS, ABRAMS, NOLAN and LYNCH, JJ.
RESCRIPT.
The Commissioner of Revenue (commissioner) appeals from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board (board) abating sales taxes assessed against Globe Automatic Vending Co., Inc. (Globe), for a period from April, 1969, through March, 1972. We agree with the commissioner that the findings of fact and report of the board are inadequate to permit us to make a determination whether the board's decision is correct as a matter of law.
It seems clear from the board's findings of fact we have no transcript of the hearing that Globe purchased the stock of a corporation, King Distributing Corporation (King), in 1965. Each company was engaged in the leasing of various types of vending machines and each operated out of the same place of business with the same officers and managers. One person owned all Globe's stock. The dispute concerns whether transfers of vending machines from Globe to King were taxable transactions under the sales tax. G.L. c. 64H, § 2.
The board regarded an auditor's report, apparently prepared by a representative of the State Tax Commission, as shedding more light on the nature of the transactions between Globe and King than the testimony at trial. That report, however, as it appears in the record, is imprecise and deficient on essential facts.
Globe purchased vending machines from a manufacturer and transferred them to King. For reasons that are unexplained, King then borrowed money from a bank, paid the manufacturer, and transferred the machines back to Globe, in what the auditor described as "just a book transfer." "Globe then (sold) the machines to the trade including King." When a sale was made to King, the report says, the price was set arbitrarily. The auditor's report does not indicate whether the arbitrary price related to the first or second transfer to King, or to both. In any event, the auditor regarded both types of transfers to King as generating taxable sales and made assessments accordingly. The board found that when Globe purchased King it created a paper indebtedness of $57,000 (apparently to King) which, on advice of an accountant, was reduced by the amount of the arbitrary sales prices for the machines transferred from Globe to King. The board concluded that there was no...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Pemco, Inc. v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue
...377 Ill. 282, 36 N.E.2d 354 (1941); Bonnar-Vawter v. Johnson, 157 Me. 380, 173 A.2d 141 (1961); Commissioner of Revenue v. Globe Automatic Vending Co., 383 Mass. 886, 421 N.E.2d 1213 (1981); Central Cooling v. Dir. of Rev., State of Mo., 648 S.W.2d 546 (Mo.1982); White Motor Corp. v. Kosyda......
-
Associated Hosp. Services, Inc. v. State, Dept. of Revenue and Taxation
...Ill. 282, 36 N.E.2d 354 (1941); Bonnar-Vawter, Inc. v. Johnson, 157 Me. 380, 173 A.2d 141 (1961); Commissioner of Revenue v. Globe Auto Vending Co., 383 Mass. 886, 421 N.E.2d 1213 (1981); Central Cooling v. Director of Revenue, 648 S.W.2d 546 (Mo.1982); White Motor Corp. v. Kosydar, 50 Ohio......
-
Construction Developers, Inc. v. City of Phoenix
...goods and sold to parent, employed persons, and bought its own raw materials and supplies); Commissioner of Revenue v. Globe Automatic Vending Co., Inc., 383 Mass. 886, 421 N.E.2d 1213 (1981) (concerning subsidiary that leased vending machines to third parties); Phelps v. Missouri-Kansas-Te......
-
Ex parte Capital City Asphalt, Inc.
...two separately owned corporations, the common ownership of the two corporations is irrelevant. Commissioner of Revenue v. Globe Automatic Vending Co., Inc., 421 N.E.2d 1213, 1214 (1981). Ownership of capital stock in one corporation by another does not itself create identity of corporate in......