Cite as: 505 U. S. 214 (1992)
Syllabus
good reason to get that done whether or not the company has a sales force. Pp. 223-231. (b) There is a de minimis exception to the activities that forfeit § 381 immunity. Whether a particular activity is sufficiently de minimis to avoid loss of § 381 immunity depends upon whether that activity establishes a nontrivial additional connection with the taxing State. Pp. 231-232. (c) Respondent's Wisconsin business activities were not limited to those specified in § 381. Although the regional manager's recruitment, training, and evaluation of employees and intervention in credit disputes, as well as the company's use of hotels and homes for sales-related meetings, must be viewed as ancillary to requesting purchases, the sales representatives' practices of replacing retailers' stale gum without cost, of occasionally using "agency stock checks" to sell gum to retailers who had agreed to install new display racks, and of storing gum for these purposes at home or in rented space cannot be so viewed, since those activities constituted independent business functions quite separate from the requesting of orders and respondent had a business purpose for engaging in them whether or not it employed a sales force. Moreover, the nonimmune activities, when considered together, are not de minimis. While their relative magnitude was not large compared to respondent's other Wisconsin operations, they constituted a nontrivial additional connection with the State. Pp. 232-235. 160 Wis. 2d 53, 465 N. W. 2d 800, reversed and remanded.
Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which White, Stevens, Souter, and Thomas, JJ., joined, and in Parts I and II of which O'Connor, J., joined. O'Connor, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, post, p. 236. Kennedy, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Blackmun, J., joined, post, p. 236.
F. Thomas Creeron III, Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin, argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was James E. Doyle, Attorney General. E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were André M. Saltoun, H. Randolph Williams, Barbara J. Janaszek, and Richard J. Sankovitz.*
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Iowa et al. by Bonnie J. Campbell, Attorney General of Iowa, Harry M. Griger, Special Assistant Attorney General, and Marcia Mason, Assistant Attorney
215
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007