The South Carolina Administrative Law Court (ALC) held that it could not enforce a Department of Revenue (Department) summons for delivery records issued to a North Carolina freight carrier that regularly transported out-of-state furniture into South Carolina. The Department’s summons requested records of all deliveries the company made into South Carolina, including each purchaser’s name, address, delivery date, and a description of products delivered, for the period of May of 2016 through December of 2017. South Carolina law vested the Department with the power to issue summons for records “relating to any matters which the department has the authority to investigate or determine,” but the ALC concluded that it lacked the authority to enforce the statutory remedy for failure to comply against a “registered North Carolina business [that] was served in North Carolina.”

Dep’t of Revenue v. SunBelt Furniture Xpress, Inc., No. 19-ALJ-17-0110-IJ (S.C. Admin. Law Ct. June 11, 2019)