Tax Law Commons^™

Federal Estate Tax - Marital Deduction - Annuity For Life With Guaranteed Certain Payments Not Divided Into Two Properties By Insurer's Accounting Treatment, William S. Bach

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, executor of decedent's estate, brought suit to recover an overpayment of federal estate tax. Decedent had purchased a life insurance policy and had elected an option under which proceeds would be paid to his wife in monthly payments for her life; however, the option also guaranteed a minimum of 240 payments. In the event the wife died before 240 payments were made, payments were to continue to decedent's daughter, or on the death of both wife and daughter, the commuted value of the remaining guaranteed payments would be paid in lump sum to the estate of the survivor. The …

Taxation-Federal Income Tax-Strike Benefits May Be Gifts, Christopher Cobb

Michigan Law Review

Taxpayer received assistance from a labor union while he was participating in a strike called by the union. The area in which he lived had become a distressed area as a consequence of the strike, and the union had established a general program of aid for strikers with no other source of income. Both before and after he joined the union payments were made to taxpayer under this program. Taxpayer sued for a refund of the income tax he payed on the value of the assistance so received, and the jury returned a verdict in his favor, finding the payments …

Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Power Of States To Levy Net Income Tax On Businesses Engaged In Soley Interstate Commerce, John C. Peters S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Appellant, an Iowa corporation, maintained a sales office in Minnesota and employed salesmen who solicited orders from dealers within that state, though all of its sales contracts were made at the corporation's home office in Iowa. In accordance with a Minnesota statute, a state net income tax, fairly apportioned to the state's share of the corporation's interstate business, was levied upon appellant. In a suit brought by the state to collect this tax, appellant contended that the statute as applied violated the commerce and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution because it taxed the net proceeds of a business …

Tax Accrual Accounting For Contested Items (Without The Benefit Of I.R.C. Sections 452 And 462), Harrop A. Freeman

Michigan Law Review

A spate of cases in 1956-1957 has required us to examine again the tax handling of accrual accounting in an attempt to find some way through the judicial morass. This study is concerned primarily with proper income and expense accrual reporting in cases in which some form of controversy exists or may exist between the taxpayer and another party concerning the item to be accrued.

Taxation - Liens -Priority Of A Subsequent Federal Tax Lien Over An Antecedent Inchoate Lien, John B. Huck S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to analyze the rationale, in terms of both statutory construction and policy, of the theory that only a choate garnishment lien is superior to a subsequent tax lien.

Freedom From Uncertainty In Income Tax Exemptions, Maurice Finkelstein

Michigan Law Review

Exemptions from obligations to government are as old as Scripture. It is not strange, therefore, that the public interest in humane government should dictate numerous exemptions from the income tax levy, particularly when one considers that the income tax has long ceased to be simply a revenue producing vehicle. The regulation of inflation or deflation, the control of corporate financial structures, the distribution of wealth, all these and many other concern of government have entered into the formula of our income tax laws. The selection of those who are to be benefited by the tax exemption is, of course, made …

Book Notes And Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Notes

Labor Relations and Federal Law

By Donald H. Wollett

Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1949. Pp. xxv, 148, 30. $3.00

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Tennessee Personal Injury Fact Digest

Compiled by Eugene McSweeney

Nashville: The Fact Digest Co., 1949. Pp. 124. $5.50

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BOOKS RECEIVED

Cases on Federal Taxation

By Roswell Magill

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. i, 546. $7.00

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Cases on Trusts

By George Gleason Bogert

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. i, 1041. $7.50

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Differences in Income for Accounting and Federal Income Tax

By Clarence F. Reimer

Chicago: Commerce Clearing House, 1949. Pp. iii,184. …

Competitive Operation Of Municipally And Privately Owned Utilities, Charles M. Kneier

Michigan Law Review

Public utility services for cities are usually provided on the principle of regulated monopoly. It has been found that by the very nature of the utility business, better service can be had and at cheaper rates by the use of one supplier rather than by the use of competing plants: This one plant having a monopoly of the business may be either privately or municipally owned. If the service is furnished by a privately owned utility, regulation is usually by a state commission, but in a few states regulation is still largely by the city in which the company operates. …

Constitutional Law - Original Jurisdiction Of United States Supreme Court - Availability As A Procedural Remedy To Avoid Multiple Taxation, Benjamin W. Franklin

Michigan Law Review

The state of Massachusetts instituted an original proceeding against the state of Missouri and individual citizens of Missouri for leave to file a bill of complaint, alleging that M. B. Blake died domiciled in Massachusetts; that she had created three trusts of securities, reserving a power of revocation over two; that the securities were held in Missouri where the trustees resided; that both states had statutes subjecting to taxation property passing by deed, grant or gift, made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the donor's death; that the Massachusetts statute taxed intangible property only when owned …

Obligatory Jurisdiction Of The Supreme Court: Appeals From State Courts Under Section 237(A) Of The Judicial Code, Seymour J. Rubin, Sidney H. Willner

Michigan Law Review

In two ways, a case decided by the state court of last resort may come to the Supreme Court of the United States: by certiorari, or by appeal. Certiorari is discretionary; and the considerations which will lead the Court to grant a writ of certiorari are set out in Rule 38 of the Supreme Court Rules, and are well-known to the practicing bar. Appeal, however, is directed to the obligatory jurisdiction of the Court. Rule 12 merely sets out the procedure to be followed in seeking an appeal; and for his decision as to whether he has substantive basis for …

The Supreme Court's Adjudication Of Constitutional Issues In 1921-1922, Iii

Michigan Law Review

The conundrum, "When is a tax not a tax?" received in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. the answer: When from the face of the statute it appears that a prohibitory or regulatory penalty has been imposed for a departure from a detailed and specified course of conduct in business. Over the dissent of Mr. Justice Clarke, the court condemned as not an exercise of the federal taxing power a provision in the Revenue Act of 1918 imposing an excise of ten per cent of the net profits on all enterprises employing children under designated ages or in excess of designated …

Supreme Court's Theory Of A Direct Tax, J H. Riddle

Michigan Law Review

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Pollock case of 1895 was the beginning of an attempt on the part of the court to formulate a new definition of a direct tax, and since that time in every case which has called for a decision as to whether a particular tax was a direct tax the court has reverted to and tried to harmonize its decision with the reasoning set forth in the Pollock case. This decision overturned a fairly definite and universally accepted definition of a direct tax which had existed for nearly a century. In …

Note And Comment, James H. Brewster, Frank L. Sage, Harry B. Hutchins, Frank L. Sage, Henry M. Bates, Henry M. Bates

Michigan Law Review

A Spurious Law Course; Railroad Taxation in Michigan and Wisconsin; Surgical Operation on Minor Without Consent of Parent; The Power of Municipal Corporations to Grant Exclusive Privileges; Inheritance Taxes and the Right to Transfer and Inherit Property; The Sovereign Power of a State to Prevent Election Frauds; Original Jurisdiction of Supreme Court in Election Cases;

Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage

Articles

Taxes have been defined as "the enforced proportional contributions from persons and property levied by the state by virtue of its sovereignty for the support of the government and all public needs." The essential elements that we will notice particularly are two; first, that the contributions are proportional, that is, levied upon all in the same class according to some impartial standard, and second, that taxes can be levied for public purposes only.