holding that a religious order that served and charged for meals was exempt from sales tax because the preparing, serving, and sharing of meals was a religious act for the order
How later courts described this case
- holding that a religious order that served and charged for meals was exempt from sales tax because the preparing, serving, and sharing of meals was a religious act for the order
- recognizing that a seller “engag[es] in a transaction for which the gross receipts are subject to the sales tax”
- "When construing statutes, meaning should be given to every word, clause and sentence in the statute, and a construction which would make part of the statute superfluous should be avoided wherever possible."
- "As a matter of judicial prudence, a court should not decide the constitutionality of a statute unless it is essential to the determination of the case before it."
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). Although I may think it unwise to impose a sales tax on the Sisters, the question of who should be taxed is one for the legislature, not for the courts. The issue before this court is whether under the present statutes the Sisters are taxable.
The majority interprets the statutes as requiring two types of persons to pay a tax on the gross receipts of nonexempt retail sales: Those “engaged in the business of making sales” (sec. 77.51(7) (b), Stats.) and those “who are not in the business of making sales” but are engaged in “mercantile” transactions. (Sec. 77.51(7) (a)) Supra,, p. 568. The majority does not define what it means by “mercantile transactions.” Nor does the majority tell us how a person “engaged in the business of making sales” differs from a seller engaged in “mercantile transactions.” Without defining the terms, the majority cannot explain why the Sisters are not included within at least one of these terms. For these reasons, I find the majority opinion unpersuasive.
I would affirm the decision of the court of appeals holding that, although the Sisters’ work is religiously rather than commercially motivated, the sales of meals by the Sisters fall within the tax statutes and the tax is not unconstitutional.