Opinion
No. 41832.
April 24, 1961.
APPEAL from the Circuit Court of DeSoto County; CURTIS M. SWANGO, Judge.
W.E. Wilroy, Walker Franks, Hernando, for appellant.
See brief for appellant in State v. Dixie Contractors, Inc., 240 Miss. 794, 129 So.2d 386.
Rosenfield, Borod, Fones Bogatin, Memphis, Tenn., for appellees.
I. Taxation statutes should be construed liberally in favor of the taxpayer and strictly against the taxing power, and all doubts are to be resolved in favor of the taxpayer. Chickasaw County v. Gulf, M. O.R. Co., 195 Miss. 754, 15 So.2d 348; Craig v. Walker, 191 Miss. 424, 2 So.2d 806; Pan-American Petroleum Corp. v. Miller, 154 Miss. 565, 122 So. 393; Stone v. Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co., 193 Miss. 204, 8 So.2d 228; Stone v. General Box Co., 212 Miss. 60, 53 So.2d 95; Stone v. Virden Lumber Co., Inc., 205 Miss. 841, 30 So.2d 498.
II. Actual presence of tangible personal property within the territorial limits of the state on the tax lien date is a prerequisite to assessing and collecting a tax thereon. Colbert v. Board of Suprs. of Leake County, 60 Miss. 143; Union Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Kentucky, 199 U.S. 194, 50 L.Ed. 150; Secs. 9744, 9745, 9747, Code 1942; 51 Am. Jur., Sec. 460 p. 472; 2 Cooley on Taxation (4th ed.), Sec. 546.
III. Taxation of tangible personal property belonging to nonresidents of the state and outside the taxing state upon the tax lien date is violative of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Union Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Kentucky, supra.
IV. Before tangible personal property may be taxed in a taxing district other than the owner's domicile, it must have acquired a more or less permanent location in that district or must be actually situated in the taxing district on the lien date. Brewster v. Borough of Bogata, 20 N.J. Supp. 487, 90 A.2d 58.
This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of DeSoto County holding that the L. M. Construction Company, a partnership, was not subject to taxation on certain personal property in DeSoto County, Mississippi.
This Company is a non-resident domiciled in the State of Tennessee, and the facts are comparable with those of No. 41-831, The State of Mississippi v. Dixie Contractors, Inc., this day decided, and the decision therein is controlling in this case.
Affirmed.
Lee, P.J., and Arrington, Ethridge and Rodgers, JJ., concur.