TAXATION-- USE TAX--COLLECTION BY A FOREIGN CORPORATION--INAPPLICABLE WHERE FOREIGN CORPORATION MAKES STRICTLY INTERSTATE SALES

The Michigan Use Tax Act requires every seller of tangible personal property for storage, use or other consumption in the state of Michigan, engaged in the business of selling at retail in Michigan, to collect the tax imposed by the act. Plaintiff is an Illinois corporation operating a merchant tailoring establishment in Chicago. It takes orders in Michigan, from residents, for clothes, fills the orders in Chicago and, by agreement, the title to the clothes is vested in the purchaser upon delivery in Chicago to an interstate carrier. It maintains a branch office in Detroit where samples are kept, salesmen take measurements and orders and accept down payments. Collections of unpaid balances are also made at the Detroit office and are deposited in a Detroit bank subject only to withdrawals by Illinois checks. Plaintiff seeks a decree declaratory of its rights under the Use Tax Act, alleging that the act is unconstitutional, or if constitutional, that it does not apply to plaintiff. Held, three judges dissenting, that the act does not apply to the plaintiff because leave to do business in [Michigan], unless an intrastate business is carried on and the intrastate and interstate businesses become associated, does not subject interstate commerce to any State-imposed burden. J.B. Simpson, Inc. v. State Board of Tax Administration, 297 Mich. 403, 298 N. W. 81 (1941)