Tri-America Oil Co. v. Department of Revenue

The plaintiff, Tri-America Oil Company, is both a wholesale and retail seller of gasoline. It owns and operates three gas stations from which it sells gasoline to the general public at retail. During the period in question here, January 1975 through December 1977, it also owned 20 to 25 other stations which it leased to independent dealers who purchased gasoline at wholesale from Tri-Americá and resold the gasoline at the leased stations at retail for use and consumption by the public.

Tri-America did not pay taxes under the Retailers’ Occupation Tax Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 120, par.…