Tax on Railway Gross Receipts

U.S. Supreme Court:

State Tax on Railway Gross Receipts, 82 U.S. 15 Wall. 284 284 (1872)

1. A statute of a state imposing a tax upon the gross receipts of railroad companies is not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, though the gross receipts are made up in part from freights received for transportation of merchandise from the state to another state or into the state from another.

2. Such a tax is not a regulation, of interstate commerce.

3. Nor is it a tax on imports or exports.

4. Nor is it a tax upon interstate transportation.

5. A distinction made between a tax upon freights carried between states because of their carriage and a tax upon the fruits of such transportation after they have become intermingled with the other property of the carrier.

By an Act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed on the 23d day of February, 1866, entitled "An act to amend the revenue laws of the Commonwealth," a tax was imposed upon the gross receipts of certain companies. The second section was as follows:

"In addition to the taxes now provided by law, every railroad, canal, and transportation company incorporated under the laws of this Commonwealth and not liable to the tax upon income under existing laws shall pay to the Commonwealth a tax of three-fourths of one percentum upon the gross receipts of said company; the said tax shall be paid semiannually upon the first days of July and January, commencing on the first day of July, 1866, and for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the same, it shall be the duty of the treasurer or other proper officer of said company to transmit to the auditor general a statement, under oath or affirmation, of the amount of gross receipts of the said company during the preceding six months, and if such company shall refuse or fail, for a period of thirty days after such tax becomes due, to make said return or to pay the same, the amount thereof, with an addition of ten percentum