Yamaha Corp. of America v. State Board of Equalization

On December 24, 1996, this court filed an opinion reversing the judgment of the trial court in this case, and finding in favor of appellant State Board of Equalization (the Board) and against Yamaha Corporation of America (Yamaha). Thereafter, Yamaha petitioned for a rehearing, which we granted. Following a rehearing, we again held in favor of the Board in our decision, filed February 21, 1997.

Yamaha then petitioned the Supreme Court for review, and its petition was granted. On August 27, 1998, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Yamaha Corp. of America v. State Bd. of Equalization (1998) 19 Cal.4th 1 [ 78 Cal.Rptr.2d 1 , 960 P.2d 1031 ] (Yamaha), holding that we had erred by concluding that the Board’s interpretation of sales and use tax statutes, as set out in the Board’s Business Taxes Law Guide opinion summaries (the annotations), were entitled to the same high degree of judicial deference as is given to quasi-legislative rules. However, the Supreme Court specifically did not reach the merits of the particular legal question raised by this case (i.e., whether Yamaha had use tax liability for musical instruments and promotional brochures stored in California and…