In re Taxes

• Decision Date: 11 October 1907
• Citation: 18 Haw. 422
• Parties: IN RE ASSESSMENT OF TAXES, WAILUKU SUGAR COMPANY.
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

18 Haw. 422

IN RE ASSESSMENT OF TAXES, WAILUKU SUGAR COMPANY.

Supreme Court of the Territory of Hawai‘i.

Argued October 3, 1907.

Decided October 11, 1907.

APPEAL FROM TAX APPEAL COURT, SECOND TAXATION DIVISION.

Syllabus by the Court

A valuation made by the tax appeal court is sustained not being shown to be erroneous or based on a wrong theory or insufficient or defective data.

M. F. Prosser for the tax assessor.

W. A. Kinney and J. L. Coke for the taxpayer.

HARTWELL, C.J., WILDER AND BALLOU, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY HARTWELL, C.J.

The property of the company returned by it at $1,700,000, was assessed at $2,380,000, and valued by the tax appeal court at $2,000,000. The assessor appeals from that valuation. The board of equalization took from the stock quotations the prices bid for the shares, namely, $275 a share for the old issue of 7000 shares, and $150 a share for the new issue of 7000 shares, and, deducting twenty per cent., arrived at the valuation of $2,380,000, acquiesced in by the assessor who testifies that he also considered other matters such as net profits, gross receipts and running expenses and that he preferred the basis of $200 a share for the entire issue of 14,000 shares, at which price twenty shares were shown to have been offered, which, after deducting fifteen per cent., would have left $2,240,000 for the valuation; that he considered $2,200,000 a correct valuation and that $2,000,000 “would be about right.” By valuing the property by items, taking cane land at $200 an acre and taro and rice lands at $300, prices shown to have been paid in the neighborhood, he made an estimate of $2,220,223.

The property was taxed the previous year on a valuation of $1,700,000 and the sum of $600,000 has since been expended upon it for improvements, consisting mainly of a new sugar mill.

It is urged by the assessor that the property was enhanced in value to the amount of this expenditure, while the company insists that it cannot be said that the outlay has accomplished more than to keep up the efficiency of the plantation and that whether results will indicate a commensurate increase in value remains to be seen.

Nothing is more difficult to define than values. Sugar plantation property may be worth its definitely ascertained salable or purchasable value or its value as shown by profits obtained or obtainable, depending upon skill and judgment as well as expenditure of money, the result being contingent upon variable factors of...