Milwaukee Motor Transportation Company v. Commissioner of Taxation, 292 Minn. 66

Summary

The corporation was organized a wholly owned by a certain railroad company to provide trucking services for customers of the railroad. The corporation did not bill customers directly but received its income from the railroad, which billed the customers and collected all shipping charges. The corporation filed an action for a refund of corporate income taxes paid over a three-year period pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 290.02. The corporation argued that the income it received form the railroad company had already been subject to gross earnings tax paid by the railroad. The trial court rendered judgment for the corporation. The court reversed the decision of the trial court and found that where the corporation was a distinct and separate entity from the railroad with an independent corporate vitality there was no reason to disregard the corporation's separate identity. Nothing prevented the corporation from engaging in trucking services unrelated to railroad business. The corporation was not ...