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Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax - Multiple Taxation Of Intangibles, Richard Brawerman

Michigan Law Review

In two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Curry v. McCanless, and Graves v. Elliott, a majority of the justices refused to adhere to the doctrine that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits taxation of intangibles by more than one state, and subscribed instead to the view that control and benefit are together the only test of jurisdiction of the states to tax. In Curry v. McCanless, the decedent, a resident of Tennessee, had created a trust of intangibles, reserving control over the income during her life and power to revoke the trust by will. The trust …