Court Opinion

ID: 9759460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:17:12.257741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.877343
License: Public Domain

*548
Smith, J.,

dissenting

I respectfully dissent. In my view charges for transporting a given item from the point of manufacture to the ultimate seller, the retailer, is part of that seller’s cost, just as much as his rent, employees’ salaries, electricity, etc. Hence, it is a part of “price” to the ultimate purchaser. Maryland Code (1957, 1975 Repl. Vol.) Art. 81, § 324 fc) defines purchaser as “any person who purchases tangible personal property or to whom services are rendered, which are taxable under § 325 of th[at] subtitle.” Section 325 imposes a tax “[f]or the privilege of selling certain tangible personal property at retail . . . .” The transportation charges here have only been paid by the purchaser at the retail sale in the sense that when he buys he pays all his seller’s expense allocable to the item sold. To me the statute is clearly specifying an exemption only for such charge as the ultimate seller may make for transportation from his place of business to the buyer.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Murphy concurs in the views here expressed.