Car Dealers Tell Ohio Justices to Reject ‘Absurd’ Tax Position

A $2 million Ohio commercial activity tax bill on a group of West Virginia car dealerships relies on an “absurd” interpretation of the phrase “ultimately received,” the businesses told the state high court.

Tax Commissioner Patricia Harris’s reading would require the Ohio Supreme Court to say that Ohio customers picking up cars they bought at West Virginia lots are then “‘delivering’ the cars—to themselves—by transportation,” Straub Nissan LLC and five other dealerships told the justices in a response brief filed Wednesday. “But this would mean that the same purchaser can receive the same goods—twice—in two different ways"—pick up and transportation—"at ...