Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin. Economics and Political Science Series Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...is it essential to the proof that the gross receipts tax is a property tax. In the first part of its decision in the Philadelphia and Reading case the Court held the tax to be a franchise tax, and as is well known the Court in the State Railroad Tax cases decided that franchises are property.-4 As might be expected, since the Supreme Court has so decided, and since it is clear that franchises are property, many state courts have decided likewise. However, while granting that the Wisconsin tax was a tax on franchise and therefore on property, those opposed to the idea that the Wisconsin tax was a tax on property, might urge that while the state had a right to impose this tax as a condition upon which foreign railroads might do business in the state, and also upon domestic companies incorporated after the adoption of the gross receipts tax, it had no right to place this condition upon domestic companies chartered prior to the adoption of the tax. Let us see if this is so. In 1854 and prior thereto the railroads in Wisconsin were taxed locally on their property and they suffered from the injustice that is bound to arise when an attempt is made to tax railroad property as property in general is taxed. The gross receipts tax was a great concession to the railroads; it decreased their taxes; it has always appealed to them; they have always in Wisconsin and are still fighting for it. Consequently, if the gross receipts tax law modified the charters of the Wisconsin roads in existence in 1854, it did so in a way favorable to the roads; nor can it be said that the n IS Wallace, 284. Cited by F. J. Goodnow: Taxation of Railway Gross Receipt in Political Science Quarterly, IX, 233. M92 7. S. 575. In a recent case Chief Justice Cassoday declared that...