Court Opinion

ID: 9709836
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:55:45.021464+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:51.893025
License: Public Domain

COYNE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. It has been my observation that the first use any purchaser knowledgeable about the operation and employment of computers makes of his or her newly acquired computer is the installation of specialized software designed for the purchaser’s particular use. On completion of that first use the purchaser’s second use is testing to ascertain whether the specialized software has been properly installed and whether the new computer adequately performs the desired function.
If the purchase of the computer was accomplished in Minnesota, the purchaser was obliged to pay a sales tax. If the purchase occurred elsewhere, on the first use of the property in Minnesota the purchaser became obligated to pay a use tax. That Dahlberg Hearing Systems, Inc., turned the computers it purchased from Hewlett Packard over to Dahlberg’s franchisees after installing its specialized software and testing the equipment does not, in my opinion, convert Dahl-berg’s use of the computers into “processing” the equipment and relieve it of the obligation to pay either a sales tax or a use tax. Therefore, it seems to me that Dahlberg, like any other purchaser who installs his or her own specialized software and tests the equipment to ascertain whether it properly performs the desired function, is liable for use tax. Consequently, I would affirm the tax court’s denial of Dahlberg’s refund claim.