Court Opinion

ID: 9455261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:16:49.630889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:31.802672
License: Public Domain

COLLINS, Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent from the court’s per curiam adoption of the opinion of Commissioner White for the reason that I feel that plaintiff’s tax liability accrued before November 30 for the years 1953 and 1954. Under the “all events” test, which was relied upon by plaintiff in its brief and even referred to by the court in its opinion,1 the test for an accrual basis taxpayer is whether all the events have occurred which fix the amount of the tax and determine the liability of the taxpayer to pay it.2 The
court determined that one of the essential steps in the fixing of tax liability was the receipt of the tax roll together with the warrant for collection by the City Treasurer from the Tax Commissioner. And, since this event always occurred around the third week in December, the court ruled that plaintiff’s tax liability did not accrue until after the close of its fiscal year on November 30. It is this particular point which forms the basis for the court’s decision and with which I cannot agree.
As just stated the two events necessary for a tax liability to accrue are: (1) the amount of the tax must be fixed; and (2) the liability of the taxpayer to pay the tax must be settled. In the State of Wisconsin, the Tax Commissioner is responsible for determining the amount of tax payable by each individual.3 In plaintiff’s particular case, the Tax Commissioner, in 1953 and 1954, computed the amount ,of tax owed by plaintiff and apprised plaintiff of the amount prior to the end of plaintiff’s fiscal year on November 30. Consequently, the first event (fixing the amount of the tax) necessary for the accrual of a tax liability occurred prior to the close of plaintiff’s fiscal year.
The question of when plaintiff’s liability to pay the taxes in question became fixed can be answered by reference to the Wisconsin statutes. The Wisconsin Code provides that all real and personal property shall be assessed as of the close of the first day of May.4 This assessment value is then subject to protest until the third Monday in July.5 If no protest is made then the valuation becomes' *723final,6 and the taxpayer’s liability likewise becomes final. In other words, after May 1, unless a protest is made within the allotted time, a taxpayer is absolutely liable to pay real and personal property taxes based on the assessed valuation, and this is so regardless of whether he sells his existing property or buys additional property. Consequently, in the present case, since plaintiff made no timely objection, its liability to pay real and personal property taxes was fixed as of the date of the May 1 assessment.
I do not agree that the delivery of the tax roll is an essential step in the fixing of liability. The delivery of the tax roll is merely the final step in the administrative process of announcing to the taxpayers what their tax liability is. For this reason, for most taxpayers, the time of the delivery of the tax roll is the date on which their tax liability accrues. However, since plaintiff learned of its tax liability and the amount of its tax in late November, this, in effect, amounted to a substitute for the delivery of the tax roll. Therefore, there is no reason for the court to hold otherwise than that, for the years 1953 and 1954, plaintiff’s tax liability accrued in late November prior to the end of its fiscal year, and that, accordingly, plaintiff should be allowed deductions during these years for the amount of tax which it paid.6
7

. The court’s opinion at p. 718.

. United States v. Anderson, 269 U.S. 422, 441, 46 S.Ct. 131, 134, 70 L.Ed. 347 (1926). The Court stated in this case:
“In a technical legal sense it may be argued that a tax does not accrue until it has been assessed and becomes due; but it is also true that in advance of the assessment of a tax, all the events may occur which fix the amount of the tax and determine the liability of the taxpayer to pay it.”

. Wis.Stat.Ann. § 70.51 (West 1969).

. Wis.Stat.Ann. § 70.10 (West 1969).

. See Commissioner White’s Finding of Fact 5(a).

. Wis.Stat.Ann. § 70.01 (West 1969), which provides in part:
“ * * * Real estate taxes shall be deemed to be levied when the tax roll on which they are extended has been delivered to the local treasurer with his warrant for collection. When so levied such taxes shall be a lien upon the property against which they are assessed, superior to all other liens, effective as of May 1 in the year when levied * * (Emphasis added.)

. It should be noted in passing that the fact that plaintiff paid its 1953 and 1954 taxes in November as soon as it received notice of tlie amount is not really relevant in determining when plaintiff’s tax liability accrued. Since plaintiff was an accrual basis taxpayer and not a cash basis taxpayer, the time of payment would not be significant. Thus, the fact that plaintiff’s tax payments might have been regarded by the City Treasurer as deposits under § 74.035 of the Wisconsin Code should not have any real bearing on the result reached in this opinion.