02-0222
Sales Tax
Signed 8/16/02
BEFORE THE UTAH STATE TAX
COMMISSION
____________________________________
PETITIONER ) FINDINGS OF FACT,
) CONCLUSIONS OF LAW,
Petitioner, ) AND FINAL DECISION
)
v. ) Appeal No. 02-0222
) Account No. #####
AUDITING DIVISION OF )
THE UTAH STATE TAX ) Tax Type:
Sales
COMMISSION, )
) Judge: Chapman
Respondent. )
_____________________________________
Presiding:
Kerry R. Chapman,
Administrative Law Judge
Appearances:
For Petitioner: PETITIONER (by telephone)
For Respondent: Laron Lind, Assistant Attorney General
Rod Boogaard, from Auditing
Division
STATEMENT
OF THE CASE
This matter came before the Utah State Tax
Commission for a Formal Hearing on June 11, 2002. Based upon the evidence and testimony presented at the hearing,
the Tax Commission hereby makes its:
FINDINGS
OF FACT
1. Petitioner is appealing a sales and use
tax audit deficiency as stated in the Statutory Notice of Deficiency dated
November 23, 2001.
2.
The
audit period at issue is February 1, 2000 through February 29, 2000.
3. The
audit deficiency assessment arose from the Petitioner’s claim of a sales tax
exemption on the purchase of a trailer from COMPANY, a Utah business. Petitioner claimed the exemption by
completing and signing Form TC-583, the Nonresident Affidavit for Sales Tax
Exemption, on February 17, 2000.
4. Upon
auditing the claim, the Respondent determined that Petitioner was, for purposes
of the exemption, a resident of Utah at the time of purchase and, thus,
ineligible, for the exemption.
Respondent presents documents to show that the Petitioner and his wife
both became employed in Utah during 2000 and that they filed a joint 2000 Utah
income tax return indicating that they were full-time Utah residents during
2000. Evidence is also presented to
show that Petitioner’s wife was issued a Utah driver’s license on November 9,
1999.
5. Petitioner
submitted a contract dated December 23, 1999, between PETITIONER or
PETITIONER’S WIFE and COMPANY for the
purchase of the trailer. Two addresses
for the Petitioner are listed on the contract.
A Utah address for the Petitioners was typed on the contract. An STATE address is hand-written beside the
Utah address. Respondent presents a
loan document dated January 10, 2000, which shows that Petitioner borrowed
money from an STATE credit union, with the trailer offered as security to
secure the loan. Respondent also
provides a second contract between PETITIONER or PETITIONER’S WIFE and COMPANY
dated February 2, 2000, for the same trailer.
In this contract, only the STATE address is present.
6. Petitioner
testifies that he did not decide to move to Utah until some time in January
2000 and finished his work in STATE the first week of February 2000. He states that these events occurred after
the date of the earlier contract to purchase the trailer and, thus, was a
nonresident at the time the trailer was purchased. He states that his wife came to Utah in November 1999, to care
for an ill parent and that their children transferred from STATE to schools in
Utah in December 1999, prior to the Christmas break. He claims that he purchased the trailer while visiting his family
in Utah during Christmas in 1999. The
trailer, ordered to specification, was not available for delivery when the
contract was signed in December 1999.
Petitioner states that he intended to remove the trailer to STATE upon
its completion and delivery in 2000.
7. Petitioner
further testifies that he decided to move to Utah before taking delivery of the
trailer in February 2000. As delivery
of the trailer occurred after Petitioner had decided to become a Utah resident,
the trailer was never removed from Utah to STATE. Nevertheless, the Petitioner registered the trailer in STATE.
APPLICABLE
LAW
1. Under
Utah Code Ann. §59-12-103(1)(a), a tax is imposed on the purchaser for amounts
paid or charged on retail sales of tangible personal property made within the
state.
2. However,
Utah Code Ann. §59-12-104(9), exempts from sales tax:
sales of vehicles of a type required to be registered under the motor vehicle laws of this state which are made to bona fide nonresidents of this state and are not afterwards registered or used in this state except as necessary to transport them to the borders of the state.
3. Utah Administrative Rule R865-19S-98 (“Rule 98”) provides some guidance in administrating the exemption described in Section 59-12-104(9). Section (B) of Rule 98 clarifies that a person is disqualified from receiving the exemption if he is a resident of the state or allows the purchased vehicle to be kept or used by a resident of the state.
4. Section (C) of Rule 98 clarifies that a nonresident owner does not qualify for the exemption if his use of the vehicle in Utah is other than “infrequent, occasional, and nonbusiness in nature.”
Two requirements must be met before the
purchase of a vehicle is exempt under Section 59-12-104(9): (1) the purchaser
must be a bona fide nonresident; and (2) the vehicle may neither be registered
nor used in Utah except as necessary to transport the vehicle to the borders of
the state. Although the Petitioner
registered the trailer in STATE, the trailer was never removed from Utah to
STATE after its purchase. Petitioner
testified that the trailer has been used recreationally in Utah since its
purchase. Accordingly, the vehicle has
been used in Utah other than to transport the vehicle to the borders of the
state. While Rule 98 allows some leeway
for a vehicle registered and kept in another state to occasionally be brought
into Utah or for a vehicle, under certain circumstances, to remain in Utah a
short period prior to its removal, such circumstances do not exist here. In addition, it is the actions of the
purchaser, not his original intent, that determine whether this requirement is
satisfied. In this case, since its
purchase, the trailer has remained and been used in Utah other than to
transport it to the border. Accordingly,
the second requirement of the statute has not been satisfied, and the exemption
is not available in this case.
We have found that the Petitioner does not
qualify for the exemption based on the second requirement of the
exemption. Accordingly, we do not need
to determine if he met the first requirement; i.e., was a bona fide
nonresident. Even though Petitioner
could not remember when he gave notice at his job in STATE or permanently
arrived in Utah, the facts we know strongly suggest that the first requirement
was not satisfied either. The
Petitioner’s wife had been issued a Utah driver’s license and his children had
transferred to Utah schools prior to the purchase of the trailer. The facts we do have strongly suggest that
Petitioner’s wife was a resident of Utah for purposes of this exemption when
she signed the first contract. The
facts also strongly suggest that Petitioner was a resident when he signed the
second contract. In either case, the
trailer appears to have been purchased by at least one resident of Utah, and
thus, is disqualified from the exemption.
DECISION
AND ORDER
Based
upon the foregoing, the Tax Commission confirms the Respondent’s audit
assessment and that the Petitioner was not entitled to an exemption on the
purchase of the trailer. Although the
registration of the trailer is not at issue in this appeal, the Commission
takes this opportunity to inform the Petitioner that the trailer should not
have been registered in STATE under the circumstances, but in Utah. Tax Commission records do not indicate that
the trailer is currently registered in Utah, and we are informing the Motor
Vehicle Division of this fact so it may investigate. We encourage the Petitioner to correct any illegal registration
that may still exist. It is so ordered.
DATED this 16th day of August
, 2002.
_________________________
Kerry
R. Chapman
Administrative
Law Judge
BY ORDER OF THE UTAH
STATE TAX COMMISSION:
The Commission has
reviewed this case and the undersigned concur in this decision.
DATED this 16th day of August
, 2002.
Pam Hendrickson R.
Bruce Johnson
Commission Chair Commissioner
Palmer DePaulis Marc
B. Johnson
Commissioner Commissioner