Dealer status under sales tax law depends on control over sales and transfer of title, not mere brokerage.

A person is treated as a dealer for sales tax purposes where the statutory meaning of "dealer" and "sale" is satisfied by business activity involving transfer of property in goods. The text explains that an assessee who does more than merely introduce buyer and seller, and instead settles price, issues cash memos, passes title in the absence of cultivators, assumes shortage risk, and makes advances, may be acting on his own account rather than as a commission agent. It also notes that concurrent findings of fact were not reopened in reference jurisdiction, leaving only the legal inference from those facts.

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Issues: Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the assessee was a dealer liable to tax in respect of the transaction in dispute.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the statutory meaning of "dealer" and "sale". A person is liable if he carries on the business of buying or selling goods and the transaction involves transfer of property in goods. On the findings recorded by the authorities, the assessee did not merely bring buyer and seller together as a broker in every transaction. The evidence showed that in some transactions he settled the price, issued cash memos, passed title in the absence of the cultivators, assumed responsibility for shortages, and made advances to purchasers. Those features supported the inference that he was acting on his own account and not merely as a commission agent in the relevant transactions. The court declined to reopen the findings of fact and examined only the legal inference drawn from them.

Conclusion: The assessee was a dealer liable to tax in respect of the transactions in dispute, and the answer to the reference was in the affirmative against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A commission agent becomes a dealer for sales tax purposes where the facts show authority to conclude sales and transfer property in goods, and the court will not disturb concurrent findings of fact in reference jurisdiction.

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