Ashland Specialty Co., Inc. v. Dale W. Steager, State Tax Comm. of West Virginia

WALKER, Justice:

*829 Ashland Specialty Company, Inc. (Ashland) unlawfully sold 12,230 packs of cigarettes in West Virginia in 2009 that were not approved for sale by the Tax Commissioner of the State of West Virginia (Commissioner). 1 Acting pursuant to West Virginia Code § 16-9D-8(a) (2016), the Commissioner penalized Ashland $159,398 for selling those cigarettes unlawfully, a penalty equal to 500% of the cigarettes' retail value. The Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) then ordered that penalty reduced by twenty-five percent. On review, the Circuit Court of Kanawha County reversed the OTA and reimposed…