FLORIDA STEEL CORPORATION, PETITIONER,
v.
FRED O. DICKINSON, JR., ET AL., RESPONDENTS

Fla. | 1976-02-25
No. 47209
ADKINS, C. J., and BOYD, OVER-TON and SUNDBERG, JJ., concur.
328 So. 2d 418 Florida Supreme Court (1976) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Florida Steel Corporation challenged Florida's intangible personal property tax on its accounts receivable from out-of-state sales, arguing that prior precedent created a judicial exemption for property with a foreign business situs. The Florida Supreme Court disagreed, holding that no such exemption exists and that Florida may tax all intangible personal property owned by domiciliary corporations unless specifically exempted by statute.


Holding

No exemption exists. The Court held that Florida may tax all intangible personal property owned by a Florida domiciliary corporation unless specifically exempted by statute, and that no such statutory exemption applies to accounts receivable. The Court expressly disclaimed the existence of a general foreign business situs exemption to the intangible personal property tax.


Headnotes

[1] Florida's intangible personal property tax applies to all intangible personal property owned by a Florida domiciliary corporation unless specifically exempted by statute.

[2] A "business situs" outside Florida does not create a judicial exemption from Florida's intangible personal property tax in the absence of a specific statutory exemption.

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Key Quotes

“This Court has never excused any taxpayer from payment of intangible personal property taxes on the theory of a foreign business situs, in the absence of a specific statutory exemption.”

Establishes the core holding that no judicial exemption exists for foreign business situs property.

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Facts & Procedural History

Florida Steel Corporation, a domiciliary corporation, generated accounts receivable from the sale of products manufactured in North Carolina, South Ca…

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Opinion of the Court
ENGLAND, Justice.

ENGLAND, Justice.

By petition for a writ of certiorari, this case is before us to resolve a conflict between the decision of the First District Court of Appeal, reported at 308 So. 2d 623, and this Court’s decision relative to Florida’s intangible personal property tax in Starkey v. Carson.

We have jurisdiction under Article V, § 3(b)(3) of the Florida Constitution.

Florida Steel Corporation brought this lawsuit to challenge imposition of the intangible personal property tax by the State of Florida on accounts receivable generated by the sale outside of Florida of products manufactured in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The Leon County Circuit Court ruled Florida Steel taxable on all of its accounts receivable. That court also found that Florida Steel had failed to prove a “business situs” outside Florida for any of its accounts receivable. The district court affirmed the circuit court in an opinion carefully addressing all of the arguments raised before us.

Florida Steel contends, contrary to the district court, that Starkey created a judicial exemption to the intangible personal property tax for intangible personal property which has a “business situs” outside the State of Florida, and that this exemption has survived legislative re-enactment of substantially identical provisions in the current version of Chapter 199, Florida Statutes. We disagree.

This Court has never excused any taxpayer from payment of intangible personal property taxes on the theory of a foreign business situs, in the absence of a specific statutory exemption. Starkey and the later cases of Smith v. Lummus

and Wood v. Ford3 contain language which assumes the existence of a foreign business situs exemption. These decisions did not, however, rely on that concept to construe the applicable tax laws. At the time Starkey was decided, decisions of the United States Supreme Court implied the existence of a constitutional barrier to the taxation of intangibles by both the state of domicile and the state of commercial activity.4 Citation of those cases in Starkey suggests that the Court was concerned with a presumed constitutional doctrine rather than the intent of the Florida Legislature. It is now clear that there is no constitutional infirmity in the taxation of the same intangible property by two states. State Tax Commission of Utah v. Aldrich, 316 U.S. 174, 62 S.Ct. 1008, 86 L.Ed. 1358 (1942). This was recognized by this Court in State ex rel. United States Sugar Corp. v. Gay, 46 So. 2d 165 (Fla.1950). The wariness exhibited by the Court in Starkey is not now a valid basis for limiting the Legislature’s clear mandate.

We are in agreement with the views expressed by the district court. Chapter 199 taxes all intangible personal property owned by a Florida, domiciliary corporation unless specifically exempted. No statutory exemption applies to the intangibles involved here. In order to harmonize the law of the state as it is reflected in published opinions, we now expressly disclaim the existence of a general foreign business situs exemption to the intangible personal property tax. The decisions of this Court in Starkey, Smith and Wood are clarified accordingly, and the decision of the First District Court of Appeal is affirmed.

ADKINS, C. J., and BOYD, OVER-TON and SUNDBERG, JJ., concur. . 138 Fla. 301, 189 So. 385 (1939).

. 149 Fla. 660, 6 So. 2d 625 (1942).

. 148 Fla. 66, 3 So. 2d 490 (1941).

.See, First Bank Stock Corp. v. Minnesota, 301 U.S. 234, 57 S.Ct. 677, 81 L.Ed. 1061 (1931) ; Farmer’s Loan and Trust Co. v. Minnesota, 280 U.S. 204, 50 S.Ct. 98, 74 L.Ed. 371 (1930).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Dep't OF Revenue v. Amrep Corp., 358 So. 2d 1343 (Fla. 1978)
    …d even though the intangibles might arise out of business conducted in another state. This result obtains even though such intangible property is, in fact, taxed by the foreign jurisdictions in which they arose. See Florida Steel Corp. v. Dickinson, 328 So. 2d 418 (Fla.1976). An out-of-state corporation which maintains its commercial domicile (principal place of business) in Florida is likewise subject to Florida’s intangible personal property tax on the basis of the “owner-domicile” theory. Genesee Corp. v.…
  • Ford Motor Credit Co. v. Dep't of Revenue, 537 So. 2d 1011 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988)
    …perty is delivered or shipped to a purchaser within this state.... Chapter 199, Florida Statutes, also provided for a tax on intangible property owned by a domiciliary corporation, regardless of business situs. See Florida Steel Corp. v. Dickinson, 328 So. 2d 418 (Fla.1976). Appellant contends that these multiple bases for taxation impermissibly burden interstate commerce. But since appellant has extended its activities regarding its intangibles to Florida and has availed itself of the benefits of the laws o…

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