Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Constitutionality Of The Voting Provisions In The Seventeenth Amendment To The Washington Constitution, Anon

Washington Law Review

The seventeenth amendment to the state constitution provides Washington with one of the most restrictive property tax systems in the nation. Under its provisions the aggregate of tax levies upon real and personal property in any given taxing district may not exceed forty mills on the dollar of assessed valuation in any one year. Moreover, the forty mill limit may be exceeded only when three fifths of the electors voting authorize an excess levy. The amendment further provides that the election is not valid unless the number of persons voting constitutes not less than forty per cent of the total …

Constitutionality Of The Voting Provisions In The Seventeenth Amendment To The Washington Constitution, Anon

Washington Law Review

The seventeenth amendment to the state constitution provides Washington with one of the most restrictive property tax systems in the nation. Under its provisions the aggregate of tax levies upon real and personal property in any given taxing district may not exceed forty mills on the dollar of assessed valuation in any one year. Moreover, the forty mill limit may be exceeded only when three fifths of the electors voting authorize an excess levy. The amendment further provides that the election is not valid unless the number of persons voting constitutes not less than forty per cent of the total …

The Original Package—A Factor, Not A Test, Anon

Washington Law Review

By invoking the import-export clause of the United States Constitution, plaintiff sought to enjoin the imposition of state personal property taxes upon unsold portions of imported shipments of greenheart pilings and timber. The lumber was stacked in plaintiff's storage yard, according to existing orders or length. Plaintiff contended that each piece of greenheart, bearing identification stamped at the point of origin of the shipment, constituted an original package and was therefore immune from state taxation. The trial court entered judgment for defendant tax officials on the ground that, when imports are inherently incapable of being packaged, the unit of transportation …

Constitutional Law—Business And Occupation Tax—Constitutionality, Kenneth L. Schubert, Jr.

Washington Law Review

The Washington court denied the claim of General Motors that the Washington Business and Occupation Tax violated the due process and commerce clauses as applied to its interstate business of wholesaling new cars. The Tax Commission had determined that the activities of General Motors within the state subjected the corporation to this tax on its gross receipts.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY MAY DENY APPRISAL AND CONFRONTATION IN PURELY INVESTIGATIVE PROCEEDING

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--STATE MAY DISCHARGE EMPLOYEE FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM STATUTORY DUTY TO ANSWER

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DAMAGES--REFUSAL TO INSTRUCT JURY TO CALCULATE LOSS OF EARNINGS ON THE BASIS OF NET INCOME AFTER TAXES

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EVIDENCE--ADVERSE SPOUSAL TESTIMONY--WIFE COMPELLED TO TESTIFY IN MANN ACT PROSECUTION

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FEDERAL PROCEDURE--CHANGE OF VENUE--TRANSFER OF CIVIL ACTION MUST BE TO DISTRICT HAVING STATUTORY VENUE

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FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT--SUIT ALLOWED FOR NEGLIGENCE EVEN THOUGH ACCOMPANIED BY MISREPRESENTATION

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INSURANCE--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION--REGULATION BY STATE WHERE UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE ORIGINATES DOES NOT OUST FTC …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Collection Of State Use Tax From Nonresident Vendor, Jerome M. Salle

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a Georgia corporation not qualified to do business in Florida, solicited orders for merchandise from Florida residents through independent brokers who forwarded the orders to plaintiff's Georgia office for acceptance. Plaintiff did not maintain any place of business in Florida nor have any regular employee or agent there. In a suit to enjoin the enforcement of a distress warrant issued upon plaintiff's failure to collect the Florida use tax, the chancellor denied relief and the Florida Supreme Court affirmed. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, one Justice dissenting. Enforcement of the statute requiring collection …

Constitutional Law - Governmental Immunity - Immunity Of Agent Of Federal Government To State Taxation, Robert M. Steed S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company contracted with the Atomic Energy Commission to construct and operate the Savannah River Project for development of the hydrogen bomb for a fee of one dollar. Under the contract du Pont was to purchase all materials and supplies with funds furnished by the United States, title to vest in the government immediately when it passed from the vendor. South Carolina attempted to apply its sales and use taxes to these purchases. In an action by the United States and du Pont before a statutory three-judge district court to enjoin collection of these …

Constitutional Uniformity And Equality In State Taxation, Wade J. Newhouse

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The method of approach and arrangement of materials are developed during the course of the monograph. Therefore, it is not necessary to repeat them here. The purpose of the study is twofold. First, it should provide background material for constitutional revision. Second, it should aid counsel and court in deciding cases arising under existing constitutional limitations and state legislatures in drafting tax measures in such a way that pitfalls in existing limitations are avoided. The greater part of this monograph was prepared during a two year period from June 1951 to 1953, while I was a Research Assistant with the …

Constitutional Law--Special Legislation--Payment Of Personal Property Taxes, P. Joan Skaggs

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Grant Gilmore, Robert J. Nordstrom, Richard J. Faletti, Robert Barbeau Mautz, Charles Elmer Fiddler, Calvin W. Corman, George B. Fraser, Adam Yarmolinsky, James A. Durham, Reginald Parker, Jo Desha Lucas, Thomas W. Christopher, Frederick J. Ludwig, John S. Bradway, Harold Gill Reuschlein, Henri Renard S.J., C. Dallas Sands, William P. Murphy

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce, Theodore J. St. Antoine S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Appellant express company, a Delaware corporation, did only interstate business within the state of Virginia. Virginia levied a state tax on intangible personal property and money owned by express companies doing business within the state, and set off their real estate and tangible personal property for local levies. In addition to the property tax, the Virginia statute provided for an "annual license tax . . . for the privilege of doing business in this State." The tax was "equal to two and three-twentieths per centum upon the gross receipts . . . earned in this State on business passing through, …

Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-State Taxation Of Interstate Air Carriers, Robert B. Olsen

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, an interstate air carrier, was incorporated in Delaware, and the home port of its planes was in Minnesota. It conducted regularly scheduled flights in and between twelve states. No landings were ever made in Delaware. Nebraska, one of the states in which landings were made by plaintiff, levied an ad valorem tax on a proportion of the Hight equipment of the plaintiff measured by the proportion of the total use of the equipment that was attributable to Nebraska. Plaintiff contended that the commerce clause of the United States Constitution precluded Nebraska from imposing any tax whatever upon such Hight …

Constitutional Law--Commerce Clause--Municipal Occupational Privilege Taxes--Photographers, Charles Richard Doyle

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law--State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce, William C. Brafford Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-State Taxation Of Vessels Engaged In Interstate Commerce, David W. Rawlinson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Standard Oil Company, an Ohio corporation, owned boats and barges which it employed in transporting oil on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. These vessels were registered in Ohio but stopped in Ohio only occasionally for fuel or repairs. The maximum distance traversed by these vessels on waters bordering Ohio was 17½ miles. An ad valorem personal property tax levied by the Tax Commissioner of Ohio on all these vessels was upheld by the Supreme Court of Ohio. On appeal, held, reversed, Justices Black and Minton dissenting. Since these vessels are subject to the property taxes of other states …

Constitutional Law--Import-Export Clause--Validity Of A State Gross Receipts Tax On Common Carriers Transporting Imports And Exports, Roger D. Anderson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The State of Maryland levied a nondiscriminatory gross receipts tax on revenues of common carriers operating within the state, apportioned on the basis of trackage within Maryland to trackage everywhere. Petitioners, who are common carriers operating within Maryland, objected to this tax to the extent that it constituted a tax on gross receipts derived from transporting imports and exports on the grounds that it violated the import-export clause. The court of appeals of Maryland declared the tax valid. On appeal, held, affirmed. Where the tax is on an activity connected with the import or export of goods, rather than …

Constitutional Law-Exports-Immunity From State Taxation, Paul E. Anderson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Article 1, section 10 of the Constitution provides, "No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports . . . . " This clause places a limitation on state taxing power. The basic problem is to determine at what point goods in the process of being manufactured and prepared for foreign shipment become exports. If the goods are found to be exports, they are immune to state taxation. Two recent Supreme Court decisions have dealt with this question in an attempt to lay down a general rule applicable to future situations. Because …

Constitutional Law-Equal Protection-Foreign Corporations-Discriminatory Intangibles Tax, Robert P. Griffin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An Ohio statute required foreign corporations doing business within the state to pay an ad valorem tax on accounts receivable which arose through outstate sales of goods shipped from warehouses within the state, even though the sales were consummated by an agent maintaining his office without the state. Such intangibles were declared by the Ohio statutory formula to have a situs within the state. At the same time, the accounts receivable of Ohio residents and domestic corporations which were derived from outstate sales by agents having their offices without the state were exempt, even though the goods were shipped from …

Constitutional Law--Commerce Clause--Due Process--State Taxation Of Interstate Barges, E. Blythe Stason, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Action was brought to recover ad valorem taxes assessed and collected by the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana on plaintiff's freight ba1ges used in interstate commerce. Plaintiff was a foreign corporation, and its barges were enrolled at ports outside Louisiana but were not taxed by the state of incorporation. They moved, without a fixed schedule, on the Mississippi River. The tax was apportioned on the basis of miles travelled in Louisiana to miles travelled everywhere. Plaintiff argued that the tax violated the due process and commerce clauses of the Constitution because the vessels acquired no tax …

Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Gross Receipts Tax On Carrier Operating Between Termini Within State Over Route Through Other State

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law-Interstate Commerce--Validity Of Statute Requiring Collection Of Use Tax By Out-Of-State Vendor Engaged Solely In Interstate Commerce, J. C. Mordy

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a Tennessee corporation, sued to recover taxes paid under protest pursuant to the Mississippi Use Tax Act. The act required collection by retailers "maintaining a place of business" in the state, which phrase was defined as including any retailer having any agent operating within the state. Plaintiff's salesmen, nonresidents of Mississippi, solicited orders for goods within that state. Acceptance of the orders and delivery to an interstate carrier were at plaintiff's home office in Tennessee. Held, insofar as the act requires a nonresident vendor to collect the tax, it violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. …

Constitutional Law-State Taxation Of Gross Receipts From Interstate Commerce, John C. Walker

Michigan Law Review

A New York statute imposed a tax of two per cent on the gross receipts of all utilities doing business within the state. The State Tax Commission construed this statute as applicable to the total receipts of petitioner derived from transporting passengers for hire from a point within New York to another point within the same state over a route which passed through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The state courts affirmed the determination of the commission, and the petitioner appealed. Held, reversed and remanded. The transportation was interstate, and an unapportioned tax on the gross receipts derived therefrom was …

A Review Of Annual Survey Of American Law: 1947, Edson R. Sunderland

Michigan Law Review

This is the sixth annual volume in which the faculty of the New York University School of Law has published its summary of the important developments in American law. The magnitude of the task required to produce these volumes would be considered beyond the capacity of the teaching staff of any single law school if the actual publication, year by year, of these monumental surveys did not prove that it could be accomplished.

Constitutional Uniformity As A Rule For The Validity Of License Taxes In Kentucky, William L. Matthews Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Indiana Gross Income Tax And The Commerce Clause

Indiana Law Journal

Notes and Comments: Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law-Power Of State To Impose License Tax On Foreign Insurance Company Doing Business In State. [United States Supreme Court]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law--State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce, George Brody S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The city of Richmond by ordinance required all solicitors to pay an annual tax before being permitted to solicit business within the city. Appellant, a representative of a Washington, D.C. firm, was arrested for soliciting without having previously procured the required license. Appellant was convicted and her conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court she contended that the statute upon which her conviction was based was unconstitutional, inasmuch as it was repugnant to the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. Held, reversed. Taxes that discriminate against interstate …

Municipal Corporations - Constitutional Law-Exemption Of Homesteads From Taxation For State Purposes, Hobart Taylor, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A taxpayer brought a class suit in his own name for the use and benefit of himself and other taxpayers against the city of Wichita Falls to have an ordinance exempting from all taxes $3,000 of the assessed taxable values of all residence homesteads of the city declared void, and for a permanent injunction restraining the city from allowing such exemption and issuing certificates therefor to owners of homesteads. The ordinance had been passed under authority of a constitutional amendment permitting a similar exemption for "state purposes." Held, a homestead is taxable under the constitution for all purposes other …

Constitutional Law-Taxation - Express Immunity Of Federal Instrumentalities, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A federal land bank filed a complaint against defendant lumber company and the tax commissioner seeking exemption from a state sales tax on purchases of lumber by the bank. The Supreme Court of North Dakota found the bank liable for the tax and on certiorari to the United States Supreme Court it was held, that the Federal Farm Loan Act conferred express immunity from the tax upon the bank and that such Congressional exemption was constitutional by virtue of the "necessary and proper" clause. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul v. Bismarck Lumber Co. (U.S. 1941) 62 S. Ct. …

Constitutional Law - Constitutionality Of State Sales Tax On Defense Materials Purchased Under A Cost-Plus-A-Fixed-Fee Contract With The Federal Government, Lloyd M. Forster

Michigan Law Review

X had a cost-plus-a-fixed-fee contract with the federal government, under which the government reserved the right to pay directly for purchases made by X pursuant to contract to give prior authorization for each purchase over $500, to inspect and acquire title to materials delivered under such contract, and to furnish materials itself. X ordered lumber from plaintiff, who contested the constitutionality of an Alabama sales tax levied on this sale, contending that the tax was levied on a transaction by which the United States secured goods for governmental purposes. Held, the tax should be sustained, since X, and …