[DOWNLOAD] "Matter Psychological Corporation v. Tax Commission State New York" by Supreme Court of New York # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Matter Psychological Corporation v. Tax Commission State New York
- Author : Supreme Court of New York
- Release Date : January 16, 1984
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this court by order of the Supreme Court at Special Term, entered in Albany County) to review a determination of the State Tax Commission which sustained franchise tax assessments imposed pursuant to article 9-A of the Tax Law. Petitioner is a New York corporation with its principal place of business in New York City. Petitioner publishes various kinds of tests (e.g., aptitude, intelligence, achievement) and related testing materials, which it sells primarily to psychologists, schools and universities. The sales are made through a catalog or, for district-wide testing programs, under contract. Petitioner's customers administer the tests and forward the completed answer sheets to DAT-MRC Scoring Service (MRC) in Iowa City, Iowa. MRC is an independent entity, now owned by Westinghouse Corporation, which contracts with petitioner on an annual basis to process and tabulate the answer sheets. After this processing is completed, MRC mails the results directly to petitioner's customers. Petitioner, on its 1971 and 1972 New York State corporation franchise tax reports, allocated part of its income to sources outside New York State based on MRC's activities in Iowa (see Tax Law, Γ§ 210). The Department of Taxation and Finance disallowed these allocations and issued notices of deficiency asserting additional franchise tax due under article 9-A of the Tax Law for these years. Petitioner thereafter requested redeterminations of the deficiencies and refunds on taxes for 1969, 1970 and 1971 based upon an allocation of income to the Iowa activities. After a hearing, respondent denied the request for refunds and sustained the deficiencies. To challenge respondent's determination, petitioner commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding, which Special Term transferred to this court. Section 210 (subd 3, par [a], cl [4]) of the Tax Law currently requires ""that for taxable years beginning before [January 1, 1978], if the taxpayer does not have a regular place of business outside the state other than a statutory office, the business allocation percentage shall be one hundred percent"". A corresponding regulation in effect at the time of the taxable years at issue provided: ""A regular place of business is any bona fide office (other than a statutory office), factory, warehouse, or other space which is regularly used by the taxpayer in carrying on its business. * * * [Where] as a required course of business, raw material or partially finished goods of a taxpayer are delivered to an independent contractor to be converted, processed, finished or improved, and the finished goods remain in the possession of the independent contractor until shipped to customers, the plant of such independent contractor is considered a regular place of business of the taxpayer"" (20 NYCRR 4.11 [b], renum and amd as 20 NYCRR 4-2.2 [b], eff Aug. 31, 1976, repealed April 1, 1981). Petitioner contends that MRC was an independent contractor which corrected and tabulated the answer sheets, thereby putting them into final usable form, and shipped the final, processed product directly to petitioner's customers. Accordingly, petitioner submits, MRC's operation in Iowa should be considered a regular place of business outside New York State for petitioner and allocation