Tax exemption
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 242 U.S. 100 - Seton Hall College v. Village of South Orange · 1916Most cited · 32 citing opinions
strict construction
To all claims of contract exemption from taxation must be applied the well-settled rule that, as the power to tax is an exercise of the sovereign authority of the state, essential to its existence, the fact of its surrender in favor of a corporation or an individual must be shown in language which cannot be otherwise reasonably construed, and all doubts which arise as to the intent to make such contract are to be resolved in favor of the state.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Tax exemption”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Tax exemption” — 67 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 · 1909–1916
- ORIGINAL
The right to make exemptions is involved in the right to select the subjects of taxation and apportion the public burdens among them, and must consequently be understood to exist in the lawmaking power wherever it has not in terms been taken away. To some extent it must exist always, for the selection of subjects of taxation is, of itself, an exemption of what is not selected. ... It may be laid down as a general rule that mere inequalities or exemptions in the matter of state taxation are not forbidden by the Federal Constitution.