Opinion ID: 2052640
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Ready-Power Co v Dearborn

Text: This Court in Ready-Power, by unanimous decision, under a prior but essentially similar enactment of § 13 and under essentially similar facts, held that the taxpayer could not be assessed by the average monthly inventory method on a fiscal-year basis in one district and on a calendar-year basis in another district, although § 13 permitted the taxpayer to report either for a fiscal year or for a calendar year. That comparable statutory language in Ready-Power is essentially similar can be seen by comparing the following with the quotation of the present § 13 in part II of this opinion: Sec. 13. All personal property, except as hereinafter provided, shall be assessed in the township in which the owner resides on the first day of January of the year for which the assessment is made.     Provided, That inventories of goods, wares, materials, merchandise and supplies such as are commonly used in trade or commerce or manufacture shall, upon the filing by the owner thereof of a sworn statement with the assessing officer showing the total of such inventories for each of the 12 months preceding said first day of January, or each of the months of the last preceding fiscal year of such owner, be assessed on the basis of the average monthly inventory for such 12-month period or fiscal year   . 336 Mich 523. The comparable facts are that the taxpayer uniformly elected the average monthly inventory method for its fiscal year ending June 30th. It filed a property statement in Detroit showing monthly inventory and filed in Dearborn showing no inventory. Dearborn required the taxpayer to file under protest that it did have property in Dearborn during the calendar year, but only in months after the termination of taxpayer's fiscal year. It is obvious that the facts in Ready-Power raise the same principle of uniformity of assessment method that the instant case does. In both cases, one party insisted on the same assessment method in both districts and the other party sought to impose a different assessment method in one district to acquire a tax advantage. It is true that in Ready-Power the party proposing the different assessment method was the city, and in the instant case it is the taxpayer, but the legal effect is the same as will be more fully developed in part IV of this opinion.