Department of Revenue v. Universal Foods Corp.

Two corporations appeal a tax court decision enforcing a Department of Revenue subpoena against them. The department requested information concerning the purchase price of potato processing plants that the defendant corporations had acquired in Washington and Idaho. The department also sought data — on those plants and a third potato plant in Minnesota — otherwise related to establishing valuation. Defendants, a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, own or lease 13 such plants in the United States. The department required the information to establish more accurately the taxable…