15 Haw. 476 | Haw. | 1904
OPINION OP THE COURT BY
Tbe Hash Co., Ltd., a corporation owning and conducting a wholesale and retail (mainly retail) dry goods business, returned its stock of “goods, wares. and merchandise” at $36043.74. The assessor ascertained that these goods were carried on the books of the owner at an inventoried value of
Whether or not goods, wares and merchandise or other property can be returned at a valuation less than that placed thereon by the owners in inventories kept for business or other private purposes, depends in each particular instance upon the method' of reaching the inventory valuation, — upon what that valuation represents. The court cannot say that in no case can such a deduction be made, nor can it say that in no case can the valuation for taxation purposes be higher than that found in such an inventory. The statute has laid down the standard of measurement which is to govern in all cases and that is the “full cash value”. If a stock of goods has been placed in a private inventory at its full cash value, that is the valuation at which such property is taxable; if at more than its full cash value, a reduction from the face of the inventory, sufficient to reach the full cash value, should be made in the return and assessment; and if at less than the full cash value, there should be a sufficient increase to make the valuation in the return and assessment represent the full cash value. The issue in each- case is one of fact to be determined in view of all the circumstances.
What is the “full cash value” ? “It seems to us that the salable value is the true test of the full cash value, and that, we believe, has been hitherto assumed by bench and bar in cases
That the full cash value may be less than that represented in the owner’s private inventory, was decided in the Orinbaum & Go. tax case, 14 Haw. 692, where the valuation fixed by the court was about 18^% less than the total shown by the inventory.
The Nash Co.’s goods were inventoried at their cost to the owners, landed in Honolulu, with no reduction for shopwear, broken sizes or lots, or depreciation for any other causes. In the Pacific Hardware Co. case, the inventory valuation represents the cost of the goods landed here with three months’ interest added thereto, less deductions made for actual damage found in taking stock, but with no allowance for over stock, slow stock, dead stock or for depreciation caused otherwise than as above stated. In each case the deduction now claimed is for depreciation for causes for which no allowance was made in the inventory. Considerable evidence by experts and other witnesses was introduced by the taxpayers tending to show that the salable