Summary
In Hercules Galion Products, Inc., v. Bowers, 171 Ohio St. 176, in a per curiam opinion, this court held that the provisions for a direct appeal to this court from decisions of the Board of Tax Appeals were not intended by the General Assembly to make this court a "super" board of tax appeals.
Summary of this case from Bd. of Revision v. FodorOpinion
No. 36394
Decided July 6, 1960.
Taxation — Sales and use taxes — Items used or consumed directly in manufacturing — Function of Board of Tax Appeals — Questions of fact — Court will not substitute its judgment for that of board — Decision affirmed where not unreasonable or unlawful.
APPEAL from the Board of Tax Appeals.
Hercules Galion Products, Inc., appellee herein, is an Ohio corporation engaged in manufacturing truck bodies, hoists, concrete mixers, grave vaults, etc. In connection with the operations, it purchased items of tangible personal property for use in and around its shops. Among the items purchased were a gasoline can to hold paint thinner in spray-paint booths, detergent used to clean its spray-paint booths in which its products are spray painted, sweeping compound to put on oily floors to prevent workmen from slipping, and optical wiping tissues used to clean safety glasses worn by appellee's employees.
The Tax Commissioner made a sales and use tax assessment on the purchases of the above-enumerated items.
The Board of Tax Appeals, on appeal, held the purchases of the above items excepted from the sales and use taxes on the ground that they were used or consumed directly in the production of tangible personal property for sale.
An appeal from the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals brings the cause to this court for review.
Messrs. Moulton, Ricksecker Wagner, for appellee.
Mr. Mark McElroy, attorney general, and Mr. Joseph L. White, for appellant.
When the General Assembly provided for a direct appeal to this court from a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals, it was certainly not its intention to make of this court a "super" board of tax appeals. The entire structure of the Department of Taxation and the Board of Tax Appeals, of necessity, requires some measure of finality in the Board of Tax Appeals.
In a long line of cases this court has laid down certain rules in an attempt to define the words, "used directly in manufacturing," etc. Having done so it must repose in the administrative appeal board the power to apply those rules to the different factual situations as they arise. It is not the function of this court to substitute its judgment for that of the Board of Tax Appeals on such factual issues but only to determine from an examination of the record whether the decision reached by the board is unreasonable or unlawful.
From an examination of the entire record, this court is unable to find that the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is unreasonable or unlawful. The decision is therefore affirmed.
Decision affirmed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, TAFT, MATTHIAS, BELL, HERBERT and PECK, JJ., concur.