Lynn v. Director of Revenue

I respectfully dissent.

Appellant is not a recalcitrant crank intent on avoiding a tax clearly owed, but rather a victim of the Department of Revenue’s inability to make a definitive ruling as to whether his river boat excursions were subject to or exempt from the Missouri state sales tax. He is a businessman with several business intersts and pays sales taxes on all of his other businesses. The Department initially informed appellant’s attorney in 1967 that the business was exempt. Nine years later the Department had a change of heart without benefit of change of law and conducted an audit…