Court Opinion

ID: 9714319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:35:14.114187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:25.178504
License: Public Domain

PELLEGRINI, Judge,
concurring.
While I join in the majority’s holding that the Betsy King LPGA Classic, Inc. and the Betsy King Classic Charities, Inc. (collectively; “Betsy King”) are not charitable institutions, I write separately because the issue of whether or not its status as a charitable institution exempts it from taxes is irrelevant as Betsy King was only the tax collector of a patron tax paid by the attendees of the tournament. Section 4(a) of the Ordinance at issue provides:
A tax is hereby imposed upon the sale of admission to places of amusement at the rate of ten per cent (10%) of the established price charged the general public, or a limited or selected group thereof, by any producer for such admission, which shall be paid by the person acquiring the same. (Emphasis added).
Because the person attending the event pays the tax, the amusement tax at issue is a patron tax, i.e., a tax levied on the person who purchases admission to an event, and where the promoter of the event, charitable entity or not, merely collects the tax due, its tax status is irrelevant. Clearview Bowling Center, Inc. v. Borough of Hanover, York County, 430 Pa. 579, 244 A.2d 20 (1968) (exemption from tax on personal property owned by proprietor of bowling alley irrelevant where amusement tax levied on patrons of bowling alley and not on proprietor); Capitol Associates v. School District of Harrisburg, 684 A.2d 1119 (Pa.Cmwlth.1996), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 550 Pa. 709, 705 A.2d 1311 (1998) (tax exemption for government authorities managing parking garage was irrelevant to patron tax because tax was levied on patrons of garage and not managers). Because Betsy King was only the collector of a patron tax, its tax-exempt status is irrelevant as it would be liable to tender the taxes it had collected from the attendees of the tournament to the Township of Richmond whether it was found to be a charitable institution or not.