Superior Bath House Co. v. McCarroll
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
By a 1929 Act, Arkansas imposed a tax of 2% on the net income of domestic corporations “with respect to
While not controlling here, it has been the consistent conviction of the Arkansas court that the federal legislation conferred broad powers of taxation upon the state. In Ex parte Gaines, 56 Ark. 227; 19 S. W. 602, decided one year after the original 1891 Act, the court held that a leasehold interest on the reservation was subject to state taxation. In Buckstaff Bath House Co. v. McKinley, 198 Ark. 91; 127 S. W. 2d 802,
Appellant, however, reads the Act more narrowly than does the Arkansas court, and contends that the only taxes Arkansas can levy are ad valorem taxes imposed directly on tangible property. But the words tangible and ad valorem appear nowhere in the Act, nor do any synonymous words there appear. And in our opinion to construe the Act as though such words had been used would do violence to the intent of Congress. The language of Congress was peculiarly adapted to the broadening of the state’s taxing power — not to its restriction. Thus, though under Arkansas law structures attached to land were considered a part of the realty, taxable or non-taxable with the land,
And appellant’s insistence that these provisions permit only ad valorem taxation loses sight of the fact that the word property is by no means limited, in all its variations,
Affirmed.
Ark. Acts (1929) No. 118.
26 Stat. 844. The quoted language was § 5 of a general Act dealing with the reservation. The section was added as a Senate amendment to a House bill, and the only relevant legislative reference to it is a statement by the House conferees that “Section 5 provides for local taxation of the bath houses, so far as the consent of the United States is concerned.” 22 Cong. Rec. 3513. Arkansas, in ceding exclusive jurisdiction over part of the reservation, expressly referred to the taxing powers conferred by the 1891 Act (Ark. Acts (1903) No. 30), and later federal Acts extending exclusive federal jurisdiction over larger portions of the reservation have provided that such extension of jurisdiction shall “not be so construed as to interfere with the right to tax all structures and other property. . . .” (E. g., 33 Stat. 187.)
Ark. Acts (1903) No. 30.
200 Ark. 233; 139 S. W. 2d 378. In addition to urging that Arkansas had no power to levy this tax, appellant had urged that it was denied equal protection by virtue of a 1931 statute exempting
Affirmed on other grounds, 308 U. S. 358.
At the time of the 1891 Act, the Arkansas law provided that “The term ‘real property and lands’ . . . shall be held to mean ... all buildings, structures and improvements, and other fixtures of whatever Mnd. . . Ark. Stats. (Mansfield, 1884) § 5585. See Union Compress Co. v. State, 64 Ark. 136. Such is still the Arkansas law. Ark. Dig. Stats. (Pope, 1937) § 13358.
Cf. Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. Arenz, 290 U. S. 66, 68.
Arkansas, for example, received approximately 77% of its total revenue from general property taxes in 1915, while in 1937 this source accounted for only 13%. Financial Statistics of States, 1915, Table 3, pp. 66-67; id., 1937, Table 5, pp. 36-41.
Ark. Acts (1929) No. 118. Compare the preceding footnote.
Henneford v. Silas Mason Co., 300 U. S. 577, 582.
Cf. Buckstaff Bath House Co. v. McKinley, 308 U. S. 358; Collins v. Yosemite Park & Curry Co., 304 U. S. 518.
Concurring Opinion
concurring:
Me. Justice Robeets and I concur in the judgment of the Court but upon different grounds from those stated in its opinion.
The state court has held that so far as the state constitution and laws are involved it has power to lay the present tax. It is no concern of ours what reasons are assigned for that conclusion. The only question for decision here is whether there is anything in the acts of Congress establishing the reservation or in the relationship of the two sovereignties, state and national, to prevent the state from laying a tax on the net income of its own corporation.
If the consent of the national government were needful in order to sustain the present tax we should have difficulty in finding that consent in the words of the Act of Congress authorizing the state to tax “all structures and other property in private ownership on the . . . reservation.” But we think that such consent is unnecessary to enable a slate to tax the income of its own corporations, derived from property located on the reservation. It is enough that no Act of Congress and no agreement by the state with the Federal Government prohibits the tax.
The fact that income-producing property is physically located on the territory of another sovereignty does not foreclose the state from taxing its own residents and corporations on the income derived from the property.
For that reason if Arkansas had made an unrestricted grant of the reservation it could not be said to have renounced its authority to tax income of its corporations or citizens derived from property on the reservation, more than if, it were located in the District of Columbia or in another state. It clearly has not done so by reserving the right to lay a property tax within the reservation or by agreeing that the United States shall have exclusive jurisdiction over it for any or for every purpose. The state’s power to lay the tax, being independent of its jurisdiction over the ceded territory, subsists unless waived or prohibited by competent authority.
Whatever constitutional power the Federal Government may have to prohibit the state taxation of income derived from property located on the reservation, regarded as a federal instrumentality, it is plain that it has not assumed to exercise the power. Graves v. O’Keefe, supra, 480. Since the state has not surrendered its constitutional power to tax the income and since Congress has not assumed in the act establishing the reservation, or otherwise, to prohibit the tax, the power of the state is unimpaired, unless restricted by its own constitution and laws.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SUPERIOR BATH HOUSE CO. v. McCARROLL, COMMISSIONER OF REVENUES OF ARKANSAS
- Cited By
- 15 cases
- Status
- Published