Court Opinion

ID: 7823606
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 18:02:00.980428+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:48.212991
License: Public Domain

Darrell Hickman, Justice, dissenting. I would affirm the chancellor because the advertising material was not used in Arkansas and it did not finally come to rest within the state for taxation purposes. Goods and merchandise purchased in Arkansas are generally subject to a sales tax. Goods and merchandise purchased outside Arkansas and brought into the state for use in the state are subject to the use tax. The legislature has recognized, and rightly so, that goods merely passing through the state, not used here, should not be taxed. In fact Ark. Stat. Ann. § 84-3105(a) (Repl. 1980) says: This tax will not apply with respect to the storage, use or consumption of any article of tangible personal property purchased, produced or manufactured outside this State until the transportation of such article has finally come to rest within this State or until such article has become commingled with the general mass of property of this State. . . . The advertising materials here did not finally come to rest in Arkansas. The only “use” was the packaging and mailing of the material out-of-state. In Burlington Northern Railroad Co., et al v. Ragland, 280 Ark. 182, 655 S.W.2d 437 (1983), we denied the application of the use tax to railway cars loaded for the first time in Arkansas. In American Television Co. v. Hervey, 253 Ark. 1010, 490 S.W.2d 796 (1973), we upheld the use tax on video tapes used by a television station. Both of these decisions were right in my judgment. The case of Skelton v. Federal Express Corp., 259 Ark. 127, 531 S.W.2d 941 (1976), is wrong in my opinion. A use tax was applied to airplanes transported to Arkansas, not for use, but for modifications. The airplanes were never used in Arkansas, nor intended for use here, and to tax them at their market value was, in my judgment simply to rewrite the use tax law. Courts are often accused of “legislating.” There is, of course, a difference between interpreting legislative acts and simply changing them. The former is permissible — the latter is an abuse of power for which there is no direct remedy. The majority decision in this case is a clear encroachment by this court on the power of the legislature.