debts
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 269 U.S. 492 - Price v. United States · 1926Most cited · 432 citing opinions
R.S. § 3466
The word 'debts,' as used in R. S. § 3466 (Comp St. § 6372), includes taxes.
How the Supreme Court has restated “debts”
Each Supreme Court definition of “debts,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “debts”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “debts” — 1,051 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1872–1937
- 1872·82 U.S. 300 - Case of the State Tax on Foreign-Held Bonds. Railroad Company v. Pennsylvania[p54]· cited 369×ORIGINAL
Debts owing by corporations, like debts owing by individuals, are not property of the debtors in any sense; they are obligations of the debtors, and only possess value in the hands of the creditors. With them they are property, and in their hands they may be taxed. To call debts property of the debtors is simply to misuse terms. All the property there can be in the nature of things in debts of corporations, belongs to the creditors, to whom they are payable, and follows their domicile, wherever that may be. Their debts can have no locality separate from the parties to whom they are due.
as property
The term 'debts' includes those debts or claims which rest upon a merely equitable or honorary obligation, and which would not be recoverable in a court of law if existing against an individual. The nation, speaking broadly, owes a 'debt' to an individual when his claim grows out of general principles of right and justice,—when, in other words, it is based upon considerations of a moral or merely honorary nature, such as are binding on the conscience or the honor of an individual, although the debt could obtain no recognition in a court of law.
taxing clause