Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

The Present Status Of Multiple Taxation Of Intangible Property, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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 …

Taxation - Power Of Municipality To Tax Income Of State Officials, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Pennsylvania statute empowered the city of Philadelphia to levy taxes on "persons, transactions, occupations, privileges, subjects and personal property" within Philadelphia. Pursuant to such authority the city enacted an ordinance imposing a tax of one and one-half per cent annually on salaries, wages, commissions, and other compensation earned by nonresidents for work performed in Philadelphia. Plaintiff, employed by an agency of Pennsylvania engaged in performance of governmental functions, brought suit to restrain the collection of the tax. Held, the statute grants the power to tax salaries of state officials and is not invalidated by any doctrine of governmental …

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 - Federal Immunity From State Tax, David N. Mills

Michigan Law Review

An Alabama statute imposed an inchoate lien on all property in the state as of October 1st of each year, such lien to continue until taxes for the ensuing year were paid. The United States acquired title to certain lands after October 1, 1936, but before the final 1937 assessment was made and the rate for county taxes set. None of the 1937 taxes were due. The United States did not pay the taxes, and on their becoming delinquent, sued to quiet title. Held, by a unanimous court, that although Alabama could not foreclose the lien without obtaining the …

Conditional Remainderman—Beware!, Maryhelen Wigle

Washington Law Review

If the tax on transfer at death of anticipatory estates levied by the Sovereign State of Washington is imposed upon their inheritance, and is payable by the beneficiary on his future as distinguished from his possessory interest, a legatee or devisee of a conditional remainder may find himself paying handsomely for the mere privilege of having been remembered by the testator in his wilp—a somewhat ephemeral consideration, to put it mildly. The purpose of this article is to examine our Inheritance Tax laws with the object of determining (a) whether the tax is imposed upon the remainderman's legacy, and, if …

The Supreme Court, The Commerce Clause, And State Legislation, Vincent M. Barnett, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Recent decisions have revealed a growing rift in the Supreme Court on the question of the effect of the commerce clause on state legislation. This question, a perennial one in our constitutional history, concerns state legislation affecting in some way or other the carrying on of interstate business, and the validity of that legislation in view of the clause giving Congress the authority to regulate interstate commerce. The permissible scope of state activity in the absence of Congressional action has been the troublesome problem. If Congress acts, the issue is a relatively simple one. When the state action conflicts with …

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 …

Personal Property Taxation In Kansas, By The Kansas Legislative Council Research Department, Robert C. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax The Equitable Interest Of A Trust Beneficiary, Rex B. Martin

Michigan Law Review

Pennsylvania levied a property tax on a resident beneficiary's equitable interest in a New York trust. The settlor of the trust, a New York resident, had created the trust there and both the trustee and the stocks and bonds comprising the corpus were in that state. The beneficiary had no control over the disposition or management of the corpus and was entitled merely to the income of the trust for her life. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the tax. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, in a per curiam decision without opinion, that the state court's …

Sales Taxes, Interstate Trade Barriers, And Congress: The Gulf Oil Case, M. R. Schlesinger

Michigan Law Review

The capacity of the federal government to deal with the increasingly irritating problem of interstate trade barriers is an important question high-lighted by the recent Supreme Court decision in McGoldrick v. Gulf Oil Corp. The Court there decided that in view of the superior federal authority over foreign commerce Congress could validly prohibit an otherwise legal city sales tax on imported petroleum manufactured into fuel oil and sold for use on foreign-bound ships.

Taxation-Power Of State To Impose Tax Measured By Intrastate Earnings On Declaration Of Dividends By Foreign Corporations [Wisconsin V. J. C. Penney, U. S. Sup. Ct. 1940]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Assessment And Taxation Of Easements, Snyder Jed King

Washington Law Review

A sells a plot of ground to B, reserving in the grant an easement of way across B's property. B becomes delinquent in the payment of his taxes on the property and allows it to go by tax foreclosure. C purchases the property at the tax foreclosure sale and now attempts to keep A from using the right of way, asserting that the title he derived from the tax sale has cut off A's right of easement. The resulting problem has received varied treatment in the different jurisdictions of this country. The apparent conflict in the decisions can be partially …

Social Implications Of Some Recent Kentucky Property Tax Cases, James W. Martin

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Use Taxes, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Determination Of Property Taxes In Washington, Douglas H. Eldridge

Washington Law Review

Probably no phase of state and local government more immediately concerns the average citizen than the administration of taxes. In order that interested persons may become acquainted with the practical and complex problems involved, this discussion describes the machinery by which property is assessed for taxation, assessed values are equalized, and levies are made against those valuations. Better understanding may lead to legislative and administrative action that will result in more efficient and equitable operation of the property tax, which is still the largest single-source of tax revenue in this state.

Trusts - Apportionment Of Annual Taxes Between Life Tenant And Remainderman, Charles F. Dugan

Michigan Law Review

Annual taxes on real estate in Massachusetts were assessed on January 1 of each year, and were payable on July and October l, The will set up a trust to pay income to the tenant for life, and to pay the principal to the remainderman. The trustees sought to retain sufficient funds out of income to meet the next year's taxes, fearing that the tenant might not live long enough after January 1 to accumulate sufficient income to meet the taxes, and they brought this bill for instructions. The probate court entered a decree sustaining the trustees' contentions. On appeal, …

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 -- State Sales Taxes In Relation To Interstate Commerce -- The Berwind-White Case, Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

One of the underlying theories of the constitutional framework, as exemplified by the commerce clause, is that there shall be a free national market, unhampered by state tariffs or restrictions. Congressmen are free to ward off the rigors of disastrous foreign competition by bringing home industries under the protective umbrella of high national tariffs, but state legislators are supposed to be powerless to protect their local industries from the damaging competition--that "most potent stimulant to improvement and progress"--emanating from other states.

Taxation - Privilege Tax On Foreign Corporations - Due Process And Commerce Clauses - Validity Of Formula, James W. Deer

Michigan Law Review

The state of Texas levied an annual franchise tax on all corporations, both foreign and domestic, authorized to do business within the state. The tax was assessed on the basis of the amount of the total capital stock which was allocable to Texas, the allocation being based on the proportion that Texas gross receipts bore to total gross receipts. This formula, as applied to the Ford Motor Company, gave the statutory base of $23,000,000 on which Ford paid the tax under protest. The evidence showed that the Ford Motor Company had only an assembly plant in Texas worth $3,000,000, that …

Taxation - Interstate Commerce - State Taxation Of Gasoline Of Interstate Motor Carriers, C. Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

An Arkansas statute required the payment of the state tax on all gasoline carried into the state in motor vehicle fuel tanks in excess of 20 gallons. The revenue therefrom was applied for highway purposes. Appellee's buses traveled four different routes, two from Memphis through Arkansas to St. Louis and two from Memphis to cities in Arkansas. For the Memphis-St. Louis trip, 68 gallons were required, only 16 of them being used in Arkansas. These 68 gallons, plus 10 extra ones, were placed in the tank at Memphis. On arrival at the Arkansas line, each bus still had 77 gallons …

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).

The Powers Of A Court Of Equity In State Tax Litigation, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

Hitherto a state taxpayer, otherwise meeting the jurisdictional requirements of a federal district court, could secure an injunction from such a court upon a showing that there was no adequate remedy at law in the federal district court, and this regardless of the legal or equitable remedies afforded by the state courts.

In view of this recent legislation, it becomes important to ascertain the new limitation upon the equity powers of the federal district courts in state tax litigation. Likewise, because of these new rigid limitations upon the jurisdiction of the federal courts, the attitude of the state courts of …

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 …

The Maryland Classified Income Tax Of 1939, Caleb R. Kelly Jr.

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Schools And School Districts - School Elections - Tax Limitations - Bond Issues - Qualifications Of Electors Under Michigan Constitution, John S. Pennell

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff submitted to the school district electors two propositions: (1) that of increasing the tax limitation from 1.5 per cent to 1.802 per cent of the assessed valuation, and (2) that of bonding the school district in the amount of $182,600 for improvements. Both at the registration of voters, and at the election, the qualifications of the electors were tested by the school code. On the tax limitation question, all registered school electors were permitted to vote. On the question of the bond issue, only those registered electors who owned property assessed for school taxes in the district were …

Intergovernmental Tax Immunity: Do We Need A Constitutional Amendment?, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Trends In Local Taxation, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Taxation - Constitutional Objections To Release Of Delinquent Taxes And Accrued Penalties Thereon, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1933, the Ohio legislature passed an act exempting from taxation certain property of interurban railway companies for a period of three years from January 1, 1932, and a subsequent act in 1935 extended the exemption for two more years. Relator, a taxpayer, sought by mandamus to compel the state tax commission to collect the taxes for all the years in question. Held, the act was unconstitutional as applied to the 1932 taxes already assessed because it violated a provision of the state constitution forbidding retroactive laws. State ex rel. Struble v. Davis, 132 Ohio St. 555, 9 …

State Property Taxes And The Federal Supreme Court, Robert C. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.