separate entity
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 292 U.S. 435 - New Colonial Ice Co. v. Helvering · 1934Most cited · 5,631 citing opinions
As a general rule a corporation and its stockholders are deemed separate entities and this is true in respect of tax problems. Of course, the rule is subject to the qualification that the separate identity may be disregarded in exceptional situations where it otherwise would present an obstacle to the due protection or enforcement of public or private rights.
How often courts cite the case defining “separate entity”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “separate entity” — 5,622 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case 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.