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Articles 901 - 930 of 1010

Full-Text Articles in Tax Law

Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes Feb 1935

Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes

Michigan Law Review

There are twenty-three states having general sales tax statutes today. For the most part these statutes have been prompted by the recent economic depression as emergency measures. Most of them are license or privilege taxes, and are of two classes: those of the first type are sales taxes in name only, and consist of taxes upon the privilege of engaging in various occupations, of which selling personal property is but one; those of the second type are taxes solely upon the privilege of selling personal property at retail. Such taxes have met with considerable opposition in the form of litigation, …

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Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers Nov 1934

Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's testator, a resident of New York, died there and at the time of his death owned certain oil paintings on temporary loan to an Art Museum in Pennsylvania, on which the State of Pennsylvania levied an inheritance tax. Plaintiff, executor under a will disposing of the pictures, filed a bill in the Federal District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to enjoin the defendants, tax officials of Pennsylvania, from attempting to impose or collect the inheritance tax. The bill alleged diversity of citizenship and the requisite jurisdictional amount, and further that the imposition of the tax violated the Fourteenth Amendment, depriving …

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Taxation-Tax On Rolling Stock-Situs Of Personal Property Employed In Interstate Commerce Jun 1934

Taxation-Tax On Rolling Stock-Situs Of Personal Property Employed In Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois corporation owned a fleet of tank cars which were used to carry oil from the corporation's Oklahoma refinery to other States. The State of Oklahoma sought to impose a tax upon the entire fleet, although the cars were outside of Oklahoma at least twenty days each month. Held, Oklahoma had only the jurisdiction to tax the average number of tank cars habitually employed within the State. Johnson Oil Refining Co. v. Oklahoma, 290 U.S. 158, 54 Sup. Ct. 152 (1933).

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Municipal Corporations - Power To License - Discretionary Power In Administrative Officers Feb 1934

Municipal Corporations - Power To License - Discretionary Power In Administrative Officers

Michigan Law Review

The City Council of Philadelphia enacted an ordinance requiring as many officers or firemen as the Director of Public Safety should deem necessary to be present at all athletic contests for profit, and further provided that the officers or firemen so stationed should be compensated at the rate of $5.50 per day by those persons requiring or demanding such service. The plaintiff brought this suit in equity to declare invalid and restrain the enforcement of the ordinance. The lower court held that the ordinance was invalid, but the supreme court reversed this decision and held that this was a valid …

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Taxation-Computation Of Capital Gains Jan 1934

Taxation-Computation Of Capital Gains

Michigan Law Review

In 1915 petitioner and husband purchased property by the entirety for $13,000. Petitioner contributed 12 per cent of the purchase price and her husband the remaining 88 per cent. In 1924 the husband died, the property at that time having a market value of $40,000. In 1925 petitioner sold the property for this sum. Petitioner, in her income tax return for that year, computed the taxable profit by using the market value of the property at the time of her husband's death with respect to the 88 per cent representing the contribution of the husband to the purchase price. Held …

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State Taxation Of Interstate Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper Dec 1933

State Taxation Of Interstate Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

Though the Supreme Court has never had occasion to express its views as to the gasoline tax in its relation to interstate motor carriers (see first instalment of this article), it has been confronted with a series of cases involving automobile registration taxes. Every State today imposes such taxes. A brief discussion of the theory and nature of such taxes will aid in understanding their legal consequences.

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Taxation -Income From Irrevocable Funded Insurance Trusts - Constitutionality Of Statute Nov 1933

Taxation -Income From Irrevocable Funded Insurance Trusts - Constitutionality Of Statute

Michigan Law Review

The settlor created irrevocable trusts to pay premiums on policies of insurance issued on his life in favor of irrevocably-named beneficiaries. Held, that sec. 219 (h), Rev. Acts 1924, 1926, making income from trusts taxable to the settlor, is constitutional. Burnet v. Wells, (U. S. 1933) 53 Sup. Ct. 7.61.1

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Taxation - Priority Of Realty Taxes In Receivership May 1933

Taxation - Priority Of Realty Taxes In Receivership

Michigan Law Review

The question of the priority of realty taxes has seldom arisen in receiverships, for the statutes in practically every jurisdiction have made the tax a lien on the land. The statutes are so worded that the tax lien takes precedence over mortgages, labor liens, and all other forms of encumbrances and claims. In times of greatly depleted land values it may happen that the unpaid taxes amount to more than the market value of the property. In such a case is the State to be treated as a general creditor for the amount of the deficiency or is it to …

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Constitutional Law-Federal Instrumentality- Mcculloch V. Maryland In Canada And Australia, Alden L. Powell Apr 1933

Constitutional Law-Federal Instrumentality- Mcculloch V. Maryland In Canada And Australia, Alden L. Powell

Michigan Law Review

The British North America Act of 1867 expressly exempts from taxation certain governmental instrumentalities. Section 125 of that Act provides that "no Lands or Property belonging to Canada or any Province shall be liable to taxation." This restriction applies to both Dominion and Provincial governments. W. H. P. Clement writes that this provision was a precautionary measure "to prevent the Dominion from levying taxes for federal purposes upon property held by the Crown for provincial purposes, and vice versa. It would operate no doubt to exempt from custom's duties goods purchased abroad by a provincial government. . . . " …

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The Fifteen Mill Tax Amendment And Its Effect, E. Blythe Stason Jan 1933

The Fifteen Mill Tax Amendment And Its Effect, E. Blythe Stason

Michigan Law Review

This article, dealing with problems arising under the Michigan Tax Limitation Amendment, should be of general interest. The movement to reduce taxes on property is nation-wide, as Mr. Stason says. One form which the movement has taken has been to limit, by constitutional provision, the amount of tax which may be levied on property. Seventeen States already have such limitations and others may be expected to give consideration to like measures

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Constitutional Law-Public Purpose-Feed Loans To Destitute Farmers Nov 1932

Constitutional Law-Public Purpose-Feed Loans To Destitute Farmers

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a constitutional provision enabling such action, the Governor asked the supreme court of South Dakota the following question: "Could the legislature enact legislation which would permit the several counties as a county enterprise to raise funds either by supplemental budget or bond or warrant issues with which they might in turn furnish feed loans or even distribute feed as a part of a county poor relief system . . . ?" In answer to this question the court held, in In re Opinion of the Judges, that the furnishing of feed or feed loans to individuals …

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Receivers - Liability For Corporate Franchise Taxes Accruing After Appointment Jun 1932

Receivers - Liability For Corporate Franchise Taxes Accruing After Appointment

Michigan Law Review

In a comment appearing in the May issue of the Review (30 MICH. L. REV. 1094), this writer considered the existing conflict of decisions on the question of a receiver's liability for corporate franchise taxes accruing during the period of receivership. The opposing views, as represented by In Re Detroit Properties Co., 254 Mich. 523, 236 N. W. 850 (1931), and Michigan Trust Co. v. Michigan (C. C. A. 6th, 1931) 52 F.(2d) 842, were compared and evaluated. Both decisions were based on the same Michigan statute (2 Comp. Laws 1929, sec. 10140). It was pointed out that the …

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Receivers -Liability For Corporate Franchise Taxes Accruing After Appointment May 1932

Receivers -Liability For Corporate Franchise Taxes Accruing After Appointment

Michigan Law Review

General business conditions of the last three years have made the field of receivership law an extremely interesting and important one to that portion of the bar which has been picking up the pieces left by the debacle of 1929. The widespread liquidation and dissolution of great business organizations has been effected in large part through the medium of the receivership. One of the more difficult problems arising in connection with such receiverships has been the liability of the receiver for franchise taxes. Such taxes have been held to be not property levies but excises on the privilege to carry …

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Federal Practice - Statute Of Limitations - An Amendment As Stating A New Cause Of Action Mar 1932

Federal Practice - Statute Of Limitations - An Amendment As Stating A New Cause Of Action

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought his action to recover taxes paid under protest September 21, 1920. The tax was levied under the Revenue Act of 1918 on certain whiskey belonging to the plaintiff and stored in a government warehouse, which it was claimed had been withdrawn for beverage purposes. In his first petition, filed July 26, 1924, the plaintiff alleged that no tax was due because the liquor, while in exclusive control of the government and without fault of the plaintiff, was destroyed by fire. Two amended petitions were filed, one on February 28, 1927, and the other on September 22, 1928, in …

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Taxation-Power To Determine Income Tax Rate Of Husband On Basis Of Combined Income Of Husband And Wife Mar 1932

Taxation-Power To Determine Income Tax Rate Of Husband On Basis Of Combined Income Of Husband And Wife

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff and his wife had separate incomes and estates. The Wisconsin income tax law provided that married persons living together might make separate returns, but that the tax rate should be that rate which would apply had their incomes been combined in a single return. Wis Stat., 1927, c. 71.05 (2) (d), c. 71.09(4) (c). Income tax rates, under the Wisconsin law, are graduated according to the size of the income. Married women are given equal property and contract rights with men under the Wisconsin statutes. The plaintiff, protesting against payment of a higher rate than that prescribed for …

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Taxation - Tenancies By The Entirety - Retroactive Application Of The Federal Estate Tax Laws Mar 1932

Taxation - Tenancies By The Entirety - Retroactive Application Of The Federal Estate Tax Laws

Michigan Law Review

H and W became tenants by the entirety in certain lands in 1917. H died in 1925. A federal estate tax was collected under section 302 of the Revenue Act of 1924, 43 Stat. 253, 304, which provides that the gross value of the decedent's estate subject to tax shall include all property "to the extent of the interest therein held . . . as tenants by the entirety by the decedent and spouse," with certain exceptions. The same provision appeared in the 1916 and successive revenue acts without material change. W protested the levy on the ground that Congress …

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Federal Practice - Class Suits - Community Of Interest Under Federal Equity Rule 38 Feb 1932

Federal Practice - Class Suits - Community Of Interest Under Federal Equity Rule 38

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff filed suit in a federal court, sitting in equity, in behalf of himself and others, to enjoin the collection of an illegal tax imposed by North Carolina upon peddlers of foreign fruit within that state. He alleged that 400 others were similarly situated and that over 100 of them had contributed to the expense of the litigation. Held, the individual legal remedy available under state statute was inadequate in view of the multiplicity of suits it necessitated, and the plaintiff was entitled under Federal Equity Rule 38 (post) to bring a class suit to enjoin the collection of …

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Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles Of Nonresident Decedents - Corporate Stock Feb 1932

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles Of Nonresident Decedents - Corporate Stock

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, a resident of Massachusetts, died in 1924 owning a large block of stock in a Maine corporation. After Massachusetts had already collected an inheritance tax assessed against these shares, the Maine tax authorities levied a similar tax, basing their claim on the fact of incorporation under Maine law. The state supreme court, 130 Me. 123, 154 Atl. 103 (1931), held that such shares were within the jurisdiction for taxing purposes even though their owner was a nonresident decedent. An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the rule in Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. …

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Taxation - Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death Jan 1932

Taxation - Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death

Michigan Law Review

Motion for a refund by the plaintiff on the ground that certain transfers made within two years of the death of the decedent should not have been subjected to the federal estate tax as they were not in fact made in contemplation of death. The defendant filed a statutory demurrer on the ground that section 302 of the Revenue Act as amended in 1926 (26 U. S. C. A. sec. 1049C) renders such property taxable irrespective of what impelled the transfer. The section reads, "Where within two years prior to his death and without consideration the decedent has made a …

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Taxation-Retroactive Application Of Federal Estate Tax Laws Nov 1931

Taxation-Retroactive Application Of Federal Estate Tax Laws

Michigan Law Review

Since the passage of the first federal estate tax laws in 1916, many difficult problems have presented themselves to the United States Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts with respect to their application. Possibly nothing in this field has caused more trouble than the decision as to whether and to what extent Congress has the power to tax retroactively gifts made in contemplation of death and transfers intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after the death of the donor; and further, assuming it has such power, exactly what constitutes a gift or transfer within the …

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The Liability For Taxes And Assessments Between Vendor And Purchaser Jun 1931

The Liability For Taxes And Assessments Between Vendor And Purchaser

Michigan Law Review

This note is concerned with the rights and duties, inter se, of vendor and purchaser with respect to the burden of taxation. The problem presents itself in the simplest form when it arises in a suit for specific performance, the question being whether the contract obligated vendor to remove the lien of certain taxes (or allow the purchaser a credit against the purchase price), or, on the other hand, obligated purchaser to pay the whole price for the encumbered land (or pay vendor, in addition to purchase price, the amount of tax previously paid by the latter). The question …

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Deeds-Delivery In Escrow-Effect On Income Tax Jun 1931

Deeds-Delivery In Escrow-Effect On Income Tax

Michigan Law Review

A taxpayer, by written contract, had agreed to sell a 99-year leasehold for $195,000. $50,000 was to be paid in 1920, and the balance in 1921. The first payment was made in October, 1920, and a deed put in escrow, to be handed to the grantee on payment of the balance. The transaction was fully carried out as per contract, and the taxpayer was assessed income tax on the entire $195,000 as of 1920. Held, the deed having been delivered in escrow, the title relates back to the original delivery on performance of the condition, showing a completed transaction …

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Taxation-Retrospective Succession Tax On Trust Remainder Jun 1931

Taxation-Retrospective Succession Tax On Trust Remainder

Michigan Law Review

The settlors voluntarily placed property in trust, the income from which was to be paid to them during their lives, the corpus to be divided upon the surviving settlors' death, among their sons, or if any son predeceased the survivor, among those persons entitled to take his intestate property. Subsequently the settlors assigned their life interest to the sons; this conveyance, however, in the case of Coolidge v. Loring, 235 Mass. 220, 126 N.E. 276, was held ineffectual to eliminate the possible effect of the contingency of any son predeceasing the surviving settlor. Between the execution of the deed …

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Taxation-Situs Of Documents For Stamp Tax Jun 1931

Taxation-Situs Of Documents For Stamp Tax

Michigan Law Review

A South Carolina corporation had established credit with certain banks domiciled in other states, and, whenever a loan was desired, had executed a note payable to and at the out-of- state bank. The notes were mailed to the bank subject to withdrawal and revocation by the corporation, until actually received and accepted by the bank. When paid the notes were cancelled and returned to the corporation. A state tax collector ascertained that no stamp tax had been paid on these notes as required in South Carolina Acts of 1928, c. 574, sec. 1, and threatened to levy on the property …

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Bases Of Jurisdiction In State Taxation Of Inheritances And Property, Charles L.B. Lowndes May 1931

Bases Of Jurisdiction In State Taxation Of Inheritances And Property, Charles L.B. Lowndes

Michigan Law Review

Theoretically there is an accepted distinction between jurisdiction to exact an inheritance tax and a property tax. Is this distinction of practical significance? Does it influence a court in the concrete decision of a case?

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Constitutional Law-Former Jeopardy-As Bar To Civil Suit For Penalty Tax May 1931

Constitutional Law-Former Jeopardy-As Bar To Civil Suit For Penalty Tax

Michigan Law Review

The respondent had been convicted and punished in a criminal prosecution for dealing in intoxicating liquors. In a civil action for the collection of taxes imposed as a penalty for non-payment of taxes due because of those particular sales, held, the prior conviction of the defendant constituted a bar to this civil suit for a penalty as double jeopardy even under sec. 5 of the Willis Campbell Act. United States v. LaFranca, U. S. Sup. Ct. Feb. 24, 1931; Adv. Op. No. 74.

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Federal Practice--Unconstitionality Of A State Statutye-Requirement Of A Three-Judge Court May 1931

Federal Practice--Unconstitionality Of A State Statutye-Requirement Of A Three-Judge Court

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff corporation applied for a preliminary injunction in a suit to restrain the collection of a state franchise tax on the ground that the tax law was unconstitutional under the federal Constitution. After the complaint had been filed and a temporary restraining order had been granted, the defendant moved to dismiss the bill for want of equity, and upon a hearing of the motion the bill was dismissed. The plaintiff then appealed to the circuit court of appeals where the law was held to be unconstitutional and the judgment was reversed. Held, the single judge had no jurisdiction …

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Review: Saving Taxes In Drafting Wills And Trusts, E. B. Stason Apr 1931

Review: Saving Taxes In Drafting Wills And Trusts, E. B. Stason

Michigan Law Review

A Review of: SAVING TAXES IN DRAFTING WILLS AND TRUSTS By Joseph J. Robinson.

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Taxation-Excise Measured By Income From Copyrights Apr 1931

Taxation-Excise Measured By Income From Copyrights

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a New York corporation, brought a bill to enjoin the Attorney-General of New York and others from collecting under a New York statute a tax levied "for the privilege of exercising its franchise in this state in a corporate or organized capacity," and measured by "income from any source," which had been interpreted to include income derived from copyrights, on the ground that the statute, as applied, infringed the federal Constitution. Held, three judges dissenting, that the tax was an excise tax levied for the privilege of doing business in a corporate capacity and that a constitutionally permissible …

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Landlord And Tenant-Liability For Taxes Mar 1931

Landlord And Tenant-Liability For Taxes

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a lessee, covenanted to pay all taxes assessed against the property. After having been transferred to several parties successively, the lease was surrendered on April 7, 1928, to the original lessor, under an agreement providing that, "the original lessee, and its assigns, shall be released from all further obligations imposed upon lessee in said lease contract." Taxes which had become a. lien. on the property by assessment Jan. 1, 1928, were due in three equal installments payable the following April 15th, July 15th, and Oct. 15th, respectively, Upon the failure of the original lessee to pay the taxes, the …

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