State Tax on Railway Gross Receipts. Reading Railroad Company v. Pennsylvania’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 43 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 146 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is not to be questioned that the states may tax the franchises of companies created by them, and that the tax may be proportioned either to the value of a franchise granted, or to the extent of its exercise; nor is it deniable that gross receipts may be a measure of proximate value, or, if not, at least of the extent of enjoyment. If the tax be, in fact, laid upon the companies, adopting such a measure imposes no greater burden upon any freight or business from which the receipts come than would an equal tax laid upon a direct valuation of the franchise. In both cases-, the necessity of higher charges to meet the exaction is the same.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Maine v. Grand Trunk Railway Co. · Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance v. State

2. “in addition to the taxes now provided by law, every railroad, canal and transportation company incorporated under the laws of this commonwealth, and not liable to the tax upon income under existing laws, shall .pay to the commomvealth a tax of three-fourths of one per centum upon the gross receipts of said company; the said tax shall be paid semiannually.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Fargo v. Michigan · Philadelphia & Southern Steamship Co. v. Pennsylvania

3. “the tax is not levied, and, indeed, such a tax cannot be, until the expiration of each half-year, and until the money received for. freights, and .from other sources of income, has actually come into the company’s hands. Then it has lost its distinctive character as freight earned, by having become incorporated into the ■ general mass of the company’s property. While it must'be conceded that a tax upon interstate transportation is invalid, there seems to be no stronger reason for denying the power of a state to tax the fruits of such transportation after they have become intermingled with the general property of the carrier, than there is for denying her power to tax goods which have been imported, after their original packages have been broxen,- and after they have been mixed with the mass of personal property in the country.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Fargo v. Michigan