Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Jurisdiction Of The States To Tax -- Recent Developments, Fowler Vincent Harper

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts Trusts And Succession Taxes, Maxwell E. Fead, Milton D. Green

Michigan Law Review

Ordinarily, one thinks of trust estates as connected with testamentary dispositions of property, marriage settlements, spendthrift trusts, or other similar "pure" trusts. However, in comparatively recent years, trust estates have assumed a place in active business life, occupying the same general fields of activity as the corporation. Business men early found that the advantages of corporate existence were offset, to a greater or less degree, by corresponding disadvantages, such as compliance with regulations laid down by the state, inflexibility of charter provisions, and particularly increased burdens of taxation. The corporate organization lays itself open to the touch of the state …

When The Importer Is A State University, May The Government Collect A Duty?, Sweinbjorn Johnson

Michigan Law Review

The Tariff Act of 1922 has raised a question which may turn out to be one of great importance as well as one of unusual interest. It appears that in previous acts exemptions were granted, more or less general, in favor of schools, libraries and educational institutions with the result that on imports for their use no duties were levied or collected. In the law of 1922, however, no such exemptions appear, and the customs officers throughout the country have required state universities to pay a duty when the title passed abroad and the articles imported by them were intended …

The National Bank Taxation In California, Roger J. Traynor

Taxation & Traynor

No abstract provided.

Taxation-May A Stats Levy A Tax On Acts Done Outside The State?

Michigan Law Review

Beginning with the great case of Union Transit Co. v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court has steadily advanced the principle that a state lacks power to tax property located out of the state. But the law, as to taxation of acts done out of the state, has not been so well worked out. It is believed that a recent decision of the court is of importance in this field. But first, a very brief review will be made of the more important cases marking steps in the working out of the problem.

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 …

Taxation-Jurisdiction To Levy An Inheritance Tax

Michigan Law Review

A Massachusetts decedent by will created a trust in stocks and bonds. By the terms of the trust the trustee was to pay the income to the settlor's daughter during her life and upon her death was to pay the corpus to such persons as she should by will appoint. She died domiciled in North Carolina leaving a will appointing her husband and son to receive the property. North Carolina imposed an inheritance tax under a statute making the exercise of the power of appointment subject to the tax in the same manner as though the property belonged absolutely to …

Taxation-Bonds-Inheritance Tax

Michigan Law Review

Albert, Prince de Monaco, died possessed of bonds in two Utah railway corporations, which had been purchased and were payable at the New York office of the companies. He was a citizen and resident of France and the bonds had never been within the territorial confines of the state of Utah. The bonds were secured by a trust mortgage on all of the property of the respective corporations, only a fraction of which was within Utah. The state of Utah levied an inheritance tax on these bonds which was paid under protest, the present action being to recover back the …

"Contemplation Of Death" In Inheritance Taxation, Henry Oliver Evans

Michigan Law Review

A tax upon gifts said to be made "in contemplation of death" as inheritances made its first appearance in our jurisprudence in the New York statute of 1892. Since that time this tax in some form has been laid by all of the states except Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Vermont. The Revenue Act of 1916 added this tax to the burdens, already heavy, of federal taxation.

Taxation-Inheritance Tax-Power Of Appointment

Michigan Law Review

An inheritance tax in general is a tax on the exercise of a right. It is in the nature of an excise tax. Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U. S. 41. In recent years many states, as well as the federal government, have extended their taxing activities in this field. 4 COOLY, TAXATION, 4th ed. p. 3439. New York passed a statute in 1892 taxing the exercise of a power of appointment. The statute declared that whenever any person exercises a power of appointment, such appointment when made shall be deemed a transfer taxable as though the property belonged absolutely …

Inheritance Taxatlon

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Frick v. Pennsylvania, (June 1925) Adv. Ops. 122, 123, 124, 125, is of vital importance in the field of inheritance taxation. The facts as far as material to the present discussion are these: one Henry C. Frick, domiciled in Pennsylvania, died testate in 1919 leaving a large estate, consisting, among other things, of certain tangible personalty permanently located in New York and other tangible personalty located in Massachusetts and stock in various corporations chartered by states other than Pennsylvania. This property was all included in the clear …

The Equitable Conversion Fiction As A Basis For Inheritance Taxation

Michigan Law Review

No one would dispute the jurisdiction of the state where land is situated to impose an inheritance tax upon its transfer at the death of the owner. Callahan v. Woodbridge, 171 Mass. 595, 51 N. E. 176; Matter of Majot, 199 N. Y. 29, 92 N. E. 402, Chamberlain's Estate, 257 Pa. 113,101 Atl. 314. Equally clear is the converse proposition: that no other state except the state where the land lies can impose such a tax. Succession of Westfeldt, 122 La. 836, 48 So. 281; In re Rust's Estate, 213 Mich. 138, 182 N. W. …

Corporate Stock And Inheritance Taxation

Michigan Law Review

News of the recent election includes the item that the state of Florida, in addition to climate, now offers constitutional exemption from state income and inheritance taxation as an attraction to elderly persons of wealth to make that state their home. In most of our states the effort is in the other direction, to include within the scope of the inheritance tax law everything that the state may reach without running afoul of constitutional inhibitions on legislative action. A discussion of all the varied and interesting situations which test the limit of the power of taxing inheritances would run far …

Tax Titles In Kentucky, Robert M. Coleman

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

The Tax Laws Of The State Of Kentucky, N. B. Hays

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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, …

Some Comments On The Tax Question, Reuben B. Hutchcraft Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tax Exemptions Of American Church Property, Carl Zollmann

Michigan Law Review

The exemption from taxation of public property in the various states of the Union rests on reason and presents no difficulty. If a state were to tax its own property or the property of the counties, cities, towns and villages created by it, the burden of the ultimate taxpayer would not be lightened in the least. Since such property is not only acquired but also maintained at public expense the money necessary for this purpose must in any case be ultimately paid by the owners of private property. An attempt to tax public property would only make the bookkeeping of …

Special Assessments Upon Cemeteries, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

Though the power to tax cemeteries would seem to be entirely clear, very commonly land devoted to such purpose is declared by constitution or statute to be exempt. See COOLY, TAXATION, (3rd ed.) 354. So also in the case of special assessments such land, in the absence of a clear exemption, is liable thereto. Bloomington Cemetery Assoc. v. People, 139 IIl. 16, 28 N. E. 1076; Mullins v. Cemetery Assoc., 239 Mo. 681, 144 S. W. 109; Buffalo City Cemetery v. Buffalo, 46 N. Y. 503; Lima v. Lima Cemetery Assoc., 42 Oh. St. 128, 51 Am. Rep. 809. It …

Tax-Free Investments In Kentucky, Reuben B. Hutchcraft

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tax Reform In Kentucky, W. O. Davis

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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.

Remedies Of Illegal Taxation, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

Taxation is to a nation what the circulation of the blood is to he individual; absolutely essential to life. In ordinary times it is the chief burden which government imposes upon the people, and is likely, therefore, to be the greatest source of discontent. This renders it of the utmost importance that taxation should as nearly as possible be just, and also that it should appear to those who pay it to be just. Absolute justice, however, is unattainable.

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 …

Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

The problem of suitable and justtaxation is one which is forever demanding solution, butnever solved. Adam Smith gave to the world certain rules which should governin taxation, the first of which was that "The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities - that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." While most writers on political economy have been disposed to accept this as a sound and just rule, some have objected to it that it …

Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Other Publications

"The foregoing paper was prepared for, and read before, the American Social Science Association, at its meeting in Cincinnati on April 22, 1878. It is not, as will be seen, a discussion of legal questions, but of questions in political economy. Still, at this time, when attention is very generally being directed to the principles of taxation, it will be found not wanting in practice interest to the legal profession." Professor Cooley takes on the problem of suitable and just taxation, a problem "forever demanding solution, but never solved." How do we set equitable rates based on personal valuation for …

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 …

1870 St. Charles County Personal Property Tax Book, City Of St. Charles, Missouri

Historic St. Charles County Tax Books

No abstract provided.