Commissioner v. Harmon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 federal appellate · 6 district · 13 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 110 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “* * * They overruled the petitioner’s contention that, as the statute permits voluntary action which effects a transfer of rights of the husband and wife, the case is governed by Lucas v. Earl, 281 U.S. Ill, 50 S.Ct. 241 , 74 L.Ed. 731 , and other decisions of like import. We hold that the petitioner’s view is the right one. “Under Lucas v. Earl an assignment of income to be earned or to accrue in the future, even though authorized by state law and irrevocable in character, is ineffective to render the income immune from taxation as that of the assignor. On the other hand, in those states which, by inheritance of Spanish law, have always had a legal community property system, which vests in each spouse one half of the community income as it accrues, each is entitled to return one half of the income as the basis of federal income tax. Communities are of two sorts, — consensual and legal. A consensual community arises out of contract. It does not significantly differ in origin or nature from such a status as was in question in Lucas v. Earl, where by contract future income of the spouses was to vest in them as joint tenants. In Poe v. Seaborn, supra, the court was not dealing with a consensual community but one made an incident of marriage by the inveterate policy of the State. In that case the court was faced with these facts: The legal community system of the States in question long antedated the Sixteenth Amendment and the first Revenue Act adopted thereunder. Under that sys”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Kane v. Commissioner · Exxon Corp. v. Commissioner

2. “* * * inspection of the briefs and of the report will show that the court's action was bottomed on a concession by the Government that `with respect to the particular income here in question, the interest of the husband and wife were such as to bring the case within the rulings' in Poe v. Seaborn, and related cases `because of amendments of the California statutes made since United States v. Robbins, 269 U.S. 315 , 46 S.Ct. 148 , 70 L.Ed. 285 , was decided.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Hunter's Estate