Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Board

512 U.S. 298 (1994)

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Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Board

United States Supreme Court
512 U.S. 298 (1994)

  • Written by Haley Gintis, JD

Facts

Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays) and Colgate-Palmolive Co. (Colgate) (plaintiffs), two multinational enterprises, were subjected to California’s corporate franchise taxing scheme because the companies had operations in California. Under the scheme, a portion of the companies’ worldwide income was attributed to California operations and the companies were required to pay a state tax for the property and sales located within California. The companies filed suit against California’s Franchise Tax Board (defendant) on the grounds that the scheme was violative of the Commerce Clause and the Due Process Clause by burdening foreign-based, multinational companies and resulted in double international taxation. The court of appeals upheld the taxing scheme, finding that the scheme was not violative of the United States Constitution. Although the United States Supreme Court had previously upheld the scheme as applied to businesses domiciled in the United States in Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Board, 463 U.S. 159 (1983), the Court had not previously addressed the constitutionality of the scheme as applied to domestic corporations with foreign parents or foreign corporations with foreign parents that had enterprises in California. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Ginsburg, J.)

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