Court Opinion

ID: 9800982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 08:44:37.445985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:50:16.353400
License: Public Domain

Skoglund, J.,
¶ 28. dissenting. With all due respect to the majority and the Commissioner of Taxes, the decision in this case is nonsensical. On appeal, this Court will grant deference to the Commissioner’s interpretation of the tax statutes at play and will not set aside her conclusions of law “if they are fairly and reasonably supported by the findings of fact.” Piche v. Dep’t of Taxes, 152 Vt. 229, 232, 565 A.2d 1283, 1285 (1989) (quotation omitted). To afford deference to the Commissioner in this case, I would have to ignore the little voice of common sense yelling in my head. The Commissioner’s conclusion that taxpayer failed to prove a change in residence from New York City to Chester, Vermont is not supported by the facts as found and should not be affirmed.
*290¶ 29. Taxpayer bought his home in Chester, Vermont in 1958. At that time he was still employed by the family business headquartered in New York City, where the company owns a building purchased in 1973. When working, taxpayer rented a two-bedroom apartment in the building. He partially retired in 1985 and began to split his time between the apartment in New York and his Chester home. In 1992, at the age of seventy-one, taxpayer retired more fully “but not completely,” because as patriarch of the family, he is “always on call.”
¶ 30. Taxpayer testified he became a permanent resident of Vermont in 1998, though in a letter to the Commissioner dated March 5, 2008 he said he became a permanent resident in 2000. Since 1992, he has been registered to vote in Vermont. He owns six cars and all have been registered in Vermont for many years. On occasion, he has the cars serviced at Benny’s auto garage in Chester. He has held a valid Vermont driver’s license for the last thirty years. His final resting place will be in Vermont (he purchased a burial plot in Chester in 1998). He attends church in Vermont. These findings by the Commissioner lead me to believe he is a Vermont resident. Apparently, I am wrong.
¶ 31. Alas, taxpayer has many of his bills, such as telephone and electric, sent to the business address in New York where a long time secretary of the family business writes the checks to pay the bills which taxpayer then signs. The secretary described herself in a letter to the Department in 2007 as taxpayer’s “Health Care Assistant.” The Commissioner noted that the bills were sent to the New York address “so they would not go unopened in Chester while he was away.” The evidence shows that taxpayer’s personal bank checks list his address in Chester, Vermont. So, according to the Commissioner, if you are ninety-three years old, as is taxpayer, and use a former employee in New York City to assist you with your finances, your claim of Vermont residency is called into question.
¶32. Unfortunately, taxpayer needs to travel to New York City for medical reasons, seeing one doctor once a month and another doctor twice a month. When he goes to New York for medical reasons, he stays one-to-three days each time in the apartment now rented by his son, using the second (guest) bedroom. The Commissioner noted that he has no doctors in Vermont, weighing this against his claim of residency. Lesson to be learned — don’t use foreign doctors if you claim Vermont residency. Dartmouth-*291Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire is apparently out.
¶ 33. Also detrimental to his claim of Vermont residency, taxpayer travels to visit his adult children in San Francisco, Chicago and London each year and, gasp, travels to Europe once or twice each year for two or three weeks and, the Commissioner notes, “to other places as well.” Obviously, if you expect to be considered a Vermonter, you will not leave the state, ever.
¶ 34. In support of his claim of Vermont residency, the Commissioner found that taxpayer moved much of his furniture from New York to Vermont, including his Italian family antiques and art works. All his personal belongings and clothes are in Chester, along with items of family memorabilia, family albums and his father’s and grandfather’s guns.
¶ 35. At some point, taxpayer transferred all his assets to his sons and when he needs money his son provides. His property tax adjustment claim for 2007 shows household income of a $12,000 gift from his son. Taxpayer files no federal or state income tax returns so no personal income tax returns were available as evidence of residence or domicile. He receives mailings from AARP and from the Social Security Administration at the Chester address. But, oh dear, his AARP membership expired in 2009. He maintains a checking account with a Vermont bank. He shops in Chester. When asked to produce copies of credit card or debit card statements, taxpayer testified he doesn’t use a credit card — “I always pay cash.” For inexplicable reasons, this financial picture was held against him by the Commissioner.
¶ 36. For homestead purposes, a determination of domicile begins with a factual determination by the Commissioner of Taxes of the taxpayer’s intent to establish permanent residence. 32 V.S.A. § 5401(14). An essential ingredient of the intent requirement is the intent to give up the old domicile and to remain at the new residence indefinitely. Piche, 152 Vt. at 232, 565 A.2d at 1285. The agency’s determination of domicile will be upheld if it is fairly and reasonably supported by the findings of fact. Id. According to the criteria listed in the definition of “domicile,” taxpayer long ago moved to Vermont with the intention of staying indefinitely. The only house he owns is in Chester, Vermont. Items of significant value to him are in Chester, he votes in Vermont, his cars are registered here, and he has a Vermont driver’s license. When he visits New York, he stays at his son’s apartment in the spare *292room. He is retired but still assists the family business from time to time without remuneration. His involvement in the family business is not what is contemplated in § 3(d) “Relevant Factors” in the Department’s regulations: “‘[a]ctively involved’ means the individual participates in the day-to-day operation, or in a policy-making position, of a business.” Domicile Regulation § 3(d), 1 Code of Vt. Rules 10 060 039-6, http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/ codeofvtrules. There was no evidence presented that taxpayer was involved in the day-to-day operation or still in a policy-making position of any of the family New York businesses as anticipated by the regulation.
¶ 37. The Commissioner concluded that taxpayer “ha[d] not broken his ties to New York.” She found his testimony that all his belongings were in Chester to be “not persuasive,” apparently because he spends one or two weeks a month in New York and “might have some personal belongings there.” Apparently she did not consider the fact that he might pack a suitcase for a one-to-three-day visit. She further found that the continuing availability of the New York apartment to taxpayer, though he no longer rents same, shows at least some continuing ties to New York. What it actually shows is a continuing tie to his son, who lets him stay at the apártment.
¶ 38. While taxpayer has been a registered voter in Vermont since 1992, the Commissioner found his use of the absentee ballot “lessened” the evidence that he is a registered voter in Vermont. This should be concerning to those of us who routinely use absentee ballots. The Commissioner relied heavily on the “one official record in evidence of [taxpayer’s statement of domicile” — a statement by an attorney for the family business, ADA Chester Corporation — that states taxpayer was a resident of New York. Of course, taxpayer never signed that brief. Not to mention that the brief was filed in a case against ADA Chester, a Vermont corporation, in response to an “adverse cutting notice” from the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Taxpayer is active in ADA Chester, that is, he has active business involvement in a Vermont corporation. The Vermont corporation files federal and Vermont state tax returns. Taxpayer signs the income tax returns as president. But, uh oh, the tax returns are prepared by a New York accounting firm and their address is listed on the filings. This is the same firm that prepares tax returns for the other family businesses. Lesson to be learned: when you seek to *293establish Vermont residency, drop the old accounting firm you used for decades and hire a Vermont firm.
¶ 39. Along this line of logic, the Commissioner wrote: “[i]t is reasonable for someone Taxpayer’s age to have a secretary receive and process his bills for his signature, but Taxpayer does not have this done by a person located in Vermont; he continues to use the New York secretary for his routine paperwork. This is evidence of continuing ties to New York.” So, as I understand this, using an accountant from another state, say in New Hampshire, will cast doubt on your claim to be a Vermonter. As to taxpayer’s Vermont bank accounts, the Commissioner found that his Social Security checks were deposited directly into this account, but questioned why taxpayer didn’t provide bank records. If there is no dispute that taxpayer maintains a Vermont bank account where his primary source of income is deposited, why does he have to expose his financial records to the Commissioner?
¶40. She then held that “[taxpayer’s age and ongoing health issues make it reasonable to continue to go to doctors who have treated him for years. This fact also demonstrates a continuing tie to New York as the domicile.” This is utter nonsense. If it is reasonable to stay with a doctor who has treated you for years, what does it matter if he works in New York City or in Vermont? At least she considered his purchase of a burial plot on the side of evidence showing intent to remain in Vermont: “[s]ince purchase of the plot was in the year taxpayer asserts he became. a permanent resident of Vermont [1998], it seems to weigh in favor of a change of domicile to Vermont.”
¶ 41. The Commissioner concluded that the evidence in the case “quite possibly fails even as a preponderance in favor of a change of domicile and certainly does not meet the more stringent standard required.” Amazing. The facts as found support taxpayer’s assertion that he is a Vermont resident. In affirming the Commissioner’s decision, the majority holds that “absent a prior adjudication by the Commissioner or a court, a taxpayer not born in Vermont or to parents domiciled in Vermont may be required to prove a change of domicile for purposes of determining eligibility for the income-sensitive adjustment to the statewide property tax.” Ante, ¶ 20. What?
¶ 42. I dissent.