Court Opinion

ID: 9595588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:41:59.432029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:29.057183
License: Public Domain

WOOD, Chief Judge (dissenting). Judge Hernandez correctly points out that the issue is whether the taxpayer is entitled to the deduction stated in § 72-16A-14.10, supra. No issue is raised as to whether the taxpayer’s commissions are gross receipts under § 72-16A-3(F), supra. Judge Sutin’s discussion of Comer v. State Tax Commission of New Mexico, 41 N.M. 403, 69 P.2d 936 (1937) is not applicable to the issues raised in this appeal. Nor is there any issue raised as to the taxpayer’s status. She does not contend that she is an employee of Western Union. Her position throughout has been that she was an agent. She claims she is entitled to the deduction provided by § 72-16A-14.-10, supra, because the agents of Western Union are inseparable from the company. Whether this is so need not be answered in this case. The gross receipts tax which the taxpayer claims should be refunded is the tax paid on her commissions from Western Union. She claims that a gross receipts tax on her commissions is a tax on the transmission itself; that her activities are integral to the single process of transmitting messages. There is evidence that the messages transmitted by taxpayer from Farmington go no farther than Albuquerque. The message goes on another machine in Albuquerque ; the Albuquerque office relays the message to another station. Admittedly there is conflicting evidence. Where there are conflicting inferences from the evidence, the Commissioner’s ruling is binding. Archuleta v. O’Cheskey, 84 N.M. 428, 504 P.2d 638 (Ct.App.1972). There is evidence to support the Commissioner’s finding that taxpayer initiates the transmission of messages by sending them to Albuquerque where the messages are redirected. This finding supports the ruling that taxpayer is not entitled to a deduction under § 72-16A-14.10, supra. Why? Because taxpayer is not transmitting messages outside of New Mexico. I would affirm on the basis of Spillers v. Commissioner of Revenue, 82 N.M. 41, 475 P.2d 41 (Ct.App.1970). Accordingly, I dissent from the result reached by the majority.