Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Impairing The Obligation Of Contracts - Refunding Bonds, John F. Hall

Michigan Law Review

In 1938, Mississippi authorized the issuance of state highway bonds in the aggregate of $60,000,000. Interest was payable semiannually and the bonds were to mature serially semiannually, and to the extent necessary to make these payments the revenues from gasoline taxes were pledged. The act further provided that the state covenanted that so long as any of the bonds were outstanding and unpaid, it would not authorize "any other obligations or securities payable from gasoline tax revenues" unless such revenues should increase in such an amount that one-third of the proceeds would be sufficient to meet the principal and interest …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of State Use Tax On Mail Order Sales Of Foreign Corporation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The respondent, a New York corporation licensed to do retail business in Iowa, did a large mail order business there also. Iowa customers sent orders by mail to the company's warehouses located outside that state, and the merchandise was shipped directly to the purchaser. On these mail order sales the company neither collected from its customers, nor paid to the state, the Iowa use tax. The petitioner, chairman of the state tax commission, threatened to cancel the respondent's license as a retailer and its permit to do business in Iowa unless such use tax were paid. Respondent obtained an injunction …

Are The Gasoline, Cigarette, And Sales Taxes Unconstitutional?, John B. Sholley

Washington Law Review

It is indeed rather surprising to discover that there is a strong possibility that all three of these taxes are unconstitutional in their present statutory forms. But this appears to be the effect of a recent decision of the state supreme court. The case referred to, State v. Inland Empire Refineries, involved the validity of a 1939 statute imposing an excise tax of one-fourth cent per gallon upon the distribution of petroleum products other than motor fuel, lubricants, and medicants. The statute was held unconstitutional in its entirety upon three independent grounds. First, the discrimination against vendors and users of …

Taxation - Constitutional Law - Power Of Congress To Exempt Federal Instrumentalities From Taxation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation instituted a mandamus proceeding against the clerk of the superior court of the city of Baltimore to compel the recording of a mortgage upon payment of the ordinary recording charge and without affixing stamps in compliance with the state recording tax. The lending process of the HOLC is expressly declared by Congress to be exempt from taxation. Held, the tax is invalid in so far as it purports to cover the lending process. All justices concurred. Pittman v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 308 U. S. 21, 60 S. Ct. 15 (1939).

Constitutional Law - Privileges And Immunities Of Federal Citizenship - Discriminatory Tax On Out-Of-State Bank Deposits - Colgate V. Harvey Overruled, C. Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

A Kentucky statute imposed on its citizens an annual ad valorem tax on their bank deposits outside the state at the rate of fifty cents per $100 and at the same time imposed on their bank deposits within the state a similar tax at the rate of ten cents per $100. Decedent, a resident and citizen of Kentucky, died in 1929. On several prior tax assessment dates, he had large funds on deposit in New York banks which he failed to report for taxation purposes. The state brought suit against the executor to recover the tax, interest, and penalties. The …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of State Occupation Tax On Contractors With The Federal Government, James H. Kilbourne

Michigan Law Review

The increasing burden of both federal and state taxation during the past decade has multiplied the attempts by some of those affected to establish, in the courts, immunity from certain taxes. The limitations of the power of the governments to tax have, then, special significance for one who seeks, in that fashion, to challenge the imposition of a tax on himself. Two cases recently decided by the Supreme Court involved one of those limitations-that which denies to the states the power to enforce a tax which impedes the exercise of the powers of the federal government.

Constitutional Law--Taxation--Power Of State To Tax Gross Receipts From Contracts Of The Federal Government, H. A. W. Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law--Taxation As Income Of Officer's Salary Exempt From Diminution During Term Of Office, Joseph S. Freeland

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Validity Of A Compensating Use Tax - Commerce Clause, William J. Isaacson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, appellees in this court, while engaged in the construction of a federal dam, brought into the state machinery purchased at retail in other states. The Washington Tax Commission demanded payment of a use tax on the machinery so purchased as required by the 1935 tax statutes. The plaintiffs refused to comply with the commission's order and received an in junction in the federal district court. The Washington legislature, under the heading "Compensating Tax," levied a two per cent excise on the use of all personal property purchased at retail after the effective date, the tax to be measured by …

Taxation--Constitutional Law--Discrimination As To Rate, Louis H. Levitt

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxation - State Income Tax On Interstate Railway - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff railway, doing local and interstate business, brought suit to recover payment made under a state net income tax measured by the difference between gross operating revenues for the whole business proportioned by the ratio of track mileage within and outside the state and operating expenses similarly proportioned. Held, such a formula for taxing the local income of a concern doing both intrastate and interstate business was not on its face invalid and the mere showing that the plaintiff's local costs were higher than the system average without also showing that intrastate revenues were not correspondingly greater did …

Constitutional Law-Taxation-Equal Protection-Privileges And Immunities Under The Fourteenth Amendment

Michigan Law Review

Reports having shown that Vermont capital for investment purposes was, due to the existing tax system, being driven out of the state, and that it was difficult to obtain capital from outside at low rates, a statute was enacted which was expected to remedy the difficulties by providing that interest up to five per cent on loans made within the state should be exempt from taxation while income from loans made outside the state should be taxed at a set rate. In a proceeding to test the validity of the measure, the state court upheld the tax, but on appeal …

Taxation - Constitutionality Of Chain Store Taxation

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff corporation filed a bill asking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Michigan chain store tax, which imposes a graduated levy, the amounts increasing from ten dollars per year per store for two stores owned, to two hundred fifty dollars per year per store for stores in "chains" of twenty-six or more. The plaintiff contended that the statute was unconstitutional under the "uniformity" clause of the state constitution and the equal protection of the laws clause of the federal Constitution. Held, the act is constitutional. C. F. Smith Co. v. Fitzgerald, 270 Mich. 659, 259 …

Taxation-State Taxes Upon Federal Instrumentalities-Who May Raise Question Of Unconstitutionality

Michigan Law Review

In connection with the performance of a contract with the federal government, the plaintiff corporation was required to pay a state sales tax on lumber, cement, steel and other materials used in the construction work. An action was brought to enjoin the collection of the tax and to have it declared unconstitutional as impeding and hampering the federal government in the performance of its governmental functions, and as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law. Held, the plaintiff is not a proper party to raise the question of the constitutionality of the tax: first, because …

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 …

Constitutional Law--Power To Tax Chain Stores, John Hampton Hoge

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taxation--State Tax On Gasoline Consumed In State As Burden On Interstate Commerce, Marrs Wiseman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law-Taxation Of Foreign Corporations

Michigan Law Review

The constitutional limitations on the power of the states to tax foreign corporations present many intricate questions. In general it may be said that a state may tax foreign corporations the same as it may tax domestic corporations, but subject to the limitations found in the commerce clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. The commerce cause takes certain subjects out of the realm of state taxation altogether. The state cannot directly impose a burden of any sort upon interstate commerce. It cannot even lay an excise on the privilege of doing intrastate business if the basis includes …

The Commerce Clause As A Restriction On State Taxation, J M. Landis

Michigan Law Review

In the discussion of a topic of this nature, my purpose is to restrict and not to enlarge the field of available evidence. The immense powers granted to Congress under the commerce clause are too well known, and the magnitude of their extension by the definition of the word "commerce" cannot be comprehended in a restricted dissertation such as this. Thus, the topic itself sets limits to our.range. It concerns itself with the existence of two powers, the paramount congressional control over commerce and the state's powers to tax. Both are inclined to encroach upon the prerogatives of the other, …

A Treatise On The Law Of Taxation Including The Law Of Local Assessments, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

"The following pages have been prepared with a view to present in a shape for practical use, the general rules which must govern the action of all authorities acting in matters of taxation ….

The preparation of any treatise on taxation necessarily involves the presentation of disputed points, and the expression of opinions upon them. This has been done in the following pages. It has not been the purpose, however, to take any positions which it was not believed the authorities would justify; and if this has been done in any instance, the references which are made to authorities will …

A Treatise On The Law Of Taxation Including The Law Of Local Assessments, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

"The following pages have been prepared with a view to present in a shape for practical use, the general rules which must govern the action of all authorities acting in matters of taxation ….

The preparation of any treatise on taxation necessarily involves the presentation of disputed points, and the expression of opinions upon them. This has been done in the following pages. It has not been the purpose, however, to take any positions which it was not believed the authorities would justify; and if this has been done in any instance, the references which are made to authorities will …