West India Oil Co. v. Tax Court of Puerto Rico
West India Oil Co. v. Tax Court of Puerto Rico
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico granted a tax exemption
In the period covered between May and December 1943, West India Oil Company sold to the transport air line 77,500
The report filed with the Treasurer disclosed that of the 77,500 gallons sold to the transportation air line, 72,601 had been consumed outside the Island and the remaining 4,899 gallons in the workshop of the company in Puerto Rico. The Treasurer refunded the tax on the gasoline consumed outside the Island but refused to refund the amount of $489.90, that is, the tax on the gasoline consumed in Puerto Rico. He based his decision on the fact that the gasoline tax was assessed on the West India Oil Company simply because it had introduced the gasoline into Puerto Rico, and insisted that although said tax devolved economically on the consumer, since the latter had not imported the gasoline, it was not entitled to any refund, for the West India Oil Company, before selling it to the consumer, had already paid the tax
The West India Oil Company appealed to the Tax Court,
Tlie Alabama case is not applicable to the one at bar. The two cases involved two immunities of different sources and scope. The Alabama case deals with the reciprocal immunity enjoyed by the Federal and State Governments under a constitutional principle,
Let us examine the facts and the doctrine of the Alabama case. A.n Alabama statute levied a tax of 2 per cent on the gross sales prize of materials sold to the contractors. The statute provided that even though the tax was laid on the seller, who was called “Taxpayer”, it was the duty of the seller to add the tax to the sales and collect the total amount from the purchaser. A section of the statute excluded from the tax the proceeds of sales which under the Constitution or laws of the United States the State is prohibited from taxing. King & Boozer sold construction material to a person who had a contract with the Federal Government on a “cost-plus-a-fixed-fee” base. The sale was made
The principle applied in the Alabama ease is best illustrated in Trinityfarm Co. v. Grosjean, 291 U.S. 466 (1934). The later case dealt with a tax levied by the State' of Louisiana on gasoline introduced and consumed within the State. A contractor who worked in construction for the Federal Government, introduced into the State a large quantity of gasoline needed in the operation of machinery employed to do the work. The gasoline was bought in the name of the contractor. The question to be determined was whether because of the fact that the gasoline was to be used in the Federal construction it was exempt from taxation inasmuch
As we have intimated before, since the exemption involved in the present case arises out of an Act of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, it is in the light of the language used in that Act that we should search for the legislative intent in order to determine the scope of the exemption. The intention is clearly disclosed in § 1 of Act No. 17 of April 11, 1939 (Laws of 1939, p. 326).
The Treasurer’s contention, básed mainly on the decision of Alabama v. King & Boozer, supra, to the effect that he lacked power to promulgate the regulation above referred to, lacks merit. In Pyramid Products, Inc. v. Buscaglia, Treas., 64 P.R.R. 788, decided on April 19, 1945, we upheld the validity of a regulation — substantially the same as No. 44 revised — approved by the Treasurer under § 39 of the Income Tax Law' of Puerto Rico (Act No. 85 of August 20, 1925. Sess. Laws, p. 584, as amended by Act No. 83 of May 6, 1931, Sess. Laws, p. 504) and under the Act of February
For the foregoing reasons the decision rendered by the Tax Court shall be annulled and the case remanded for the rendition of another decision sustaining the complaint.
Act No. 17 of April 11 of 1939 (p., 326).
Act No. 1 of Jume 22, 1942 exempted from taxation the petroleum products that may he distributed from Puerto Rico for use outside of the Island from and after June 15, 1942, during the present state of war and until 90 days after the United States eeases hostilities. But the exemption granted to the Caribbean Atlantic Air Lines, Inc., under Act No. 17 of 1939 covered all the gasoline consumed by the company in as well as out of the Island for a period of fifteen years.
The West India Oil Company filed tlie complaint for tlie use of the Caribbean Atlantic Air Lines, Inc., the latter having agreed to pay to the former tho amount of $489.90 should the Treasurer fail to refund the tax.
That principle while not expressly stated in the Constitution necessarily arises out of the dual governments, the Federal and State, which rule over the same territory. McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 400, 436 (U.S., 1819); The Collector v. Day, 11 Wall. 113 (U. S., 1870). The latter was reversed by Graves v. N.Y. ex rel. O’Keefe, 306 U.S. 466 (1939), in so far as it recognized an implied constitutional immunity against the payment of income tax on the salaries of the officers or employees of the National or State Government or its instrumentalities.
Referring to tlie change which has taken place in the doctrine of reciprocal immunity from tax payment, it has been said: . instead of a doctrine of reciprocal immunity from taxation there has been established a doctrine of reciprocal taxation of the instrumentalities of each other by both the states and the United States, ...” Hugh Evander Willis, Tendencies in American Constitutional Law, 4 U. of Toronto L. J. 338, 348. See also Graves v. N.Y. ex rel. O’Keefe, 306 U. S. 466 (1939).
Section 1 of Act No. 17 provides:
“The development of business and the progress of nations require the most rapid means of communication. The governments of all countries give their most decided cooperation to the development of aviation, and one of the means for the progress of aviation is that the public become accustomed to travel by air. To establish this kind of business in this island is to embark on an adventure and to run the risk of losing money. By Act No. 196 of this Legislature, approved May 15, 1938, the corporation Aerovías Nacionales Puerto Rico, Ine., was exempted from the payment of taxes, and*76 said corporation and the Powelson Air Line, today the Caribbean Atlantic Air Lines, Inc., have been carrying passengers, the former between San .Tuan, Ponce and Mayagiiez, and vice versa, and the latter between San .Tuan and Ponce, a.nd vice versa, and said lines can not go to other towns for lack of proper landing places.”
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.