privilege tax
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 283 U.S. 183 - Interstate Transit, Inc. v. Lindsey · 1931Most cited · 217 citing opinions
on interstate commerce
[A] state may not lay a tax on the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce... [but] may impose even upon motor vehicles engaged exclusively in interstate commerce a charge, as compensation for the use of the public highways, which is a fair contribution to the cost of constructing and maintaining them and of regulating the traffic thereon. As such a charge is a direct burden on interstate commerce, the tax cannot be sustained unless it appears affirmatively, in some way, that it is levied only as compensation for use of the highways or to defray the expense of regulating motor traffic.
How often courts cite the cases defining “privilege tax”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “privilege tax” — 313 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 2 definitions, chronological · 1931–1934
Respondent is not taxed upon the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce... in Ozark Pipe Line Corporation v. Monier, the tax was held to be bad as one imposed 'upon the privilege or right to do business' of a corporation engaged only in interstate commerce