Court Opinion

ID: 9785615
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:14:04.778095+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:30.490549
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I agree completely with those aspects of the majority opinion, which affirm the Board of Equalization's treatment of the appraisal techniques, and hold that the Department of Revenue has no standing to present an issue on behalf of Uinta County in this case. I have a different view with respect to the reversal of the Board's decision that permitted offset of overpayments against underpayments, and I would affirm the Board's decision in that regard also. For that reason, I must dissent from that part of the majority decision.
I am satisfied that the "inequity" alluded to by this Court in the last sentence of Texaco, Inc. v. State Bd. of Equalization, 845 P.2d 398, 402 (Wyo.1993), has come to pass. If we follow strictly the statutory construction applied in that case, then basic concepts of equity and fair play must be invoked to accomplish justice in this case. The essence of the case is that Amoco Production Company endeavored to file amended returns for some of the tax years in issue, but those amended returns were held in abeyance by the audit process. Amoco Production Company was unable to file the appropriate claims for refund based upon those amended returns. Now the taxpayer is advised that it is too late to make a claim for a refund.
Neither in Thunder Basin Coal Co. v. Wyoming State Bd. of Equalization, 896 P.2d 1336 (Wyo.1995) nor in Texaco, Inc. did this Court negate the proposition that we had advanced previously:
When a taxpayer has been wrongfully deprived of a hearing to which he is entitled, it can hardly be said that during that time he had that fair and full and unembarrassed opportunity to pay to which he is entitled. In such case the wrong is not one-sided, and the state should not be able to profit by its own wrong. Equitable *42considerations will not be entirely disregarded even in tax cases. United States Trust Co. v. New Mexico [183 U.S. 535, 22 S.Ct. 172, 46 LEd. 315 (1902) ], supra.
Morrison-Knudson Co. v. State Bd. of Equalization, 58 Wyo. 500, 532, 135 P.2d 927, 939 (1943). We reiterated that proposition in Kunard v. Enron Oil & Gas Co., 869 P.2d 132, 136 (Wyo.1994):
Finally, this court has held that "[elqui-table considerations will not be entirely disregarded even in tax cases." Morrison-Knudson Co. v. State Bd. of Equalization, 58 Wyo. 500, 135 P.2d 927, 939 (1943). Because Enron's overpayments exceeded its underpayments for each of the tax years in question, the County was never deprived [of the] use of the underpayment dollars.
While Amoco Production Company was not denied a hearing, it was denied the opportunity to claim a refund by virtue of the audit process carried on by the taxing authorities. That difference does not serve to distinguish the equitable principle articulated in the pri- or cases, which should be applied here. Neither is there any apparent indication that Amoco Production Company will have an opportunity to present its claims because of audits commenced later as this Court suggested Texaco would have in Texaco, Inc. Further, there does not appear to be any opportunity for Amoco Production Company to profit from deliberate underreporting such as was assumed in the discussion of policy considerations in Moncrief v. Wyoming State Bd. of Equalization, 856 P.2d 440, 445 (Wyo.1993). In fact, this case appears to fit somewhere in between Monerief and Kunard, and there certainly is no reason to deny Amoco Production Company the opportunity to recover those overpayments it sought to address in its amended returns, which were not processed while the audit process was completed. Obviously, this is the result the Board sought to achieve, but the majority has ruled that it did not properly apply the pertinent statute. Perhaps the Board has no authority to invoke equitable relief for taxpayers, but this Court can afford equitable relief, and we should do that in this case.
I would affirm the Board of Equalization in all respects.