Source: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Virginia_v._Imperial_Coal_Sales_Co./Opinion_of_the_Court
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:51:30+00:00

Document:
< Commonwealth of Virginia v. Imperial Coal Sales Co.
←Commonwealth of Virginia v. Imperial Coal Sales Co.
Commonwealth of Virginia v. Imperial Coal Sales Co.
We are dealing, as we have said, with an ad valorem property tax, and not with a privilege tax. Respondent is not taxed upon the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce, and decisions, cited by the state court, holding such taxes to be invalid, are not apposite. Thus, in Ozark Pipe Line Corporation v. Monier, 266 U.S. 555, 45 S.Ct. 184, 69 L.Ed. 439, the tax was held to be bad as one imposed 'upon the privilege or right to do business' of a corporation engaged only in interstate commerce. Id., page 562 of 266 U.S., 45 S.Ct. 184, 185. The same principle of protection was applicable in Alpha Portland Cement Co. v. Massachusetts, 268 U.S. 203, 216, 45 S.Ct. 477, 69 L.Ed. 916, 44 A.L.R. 1219. Compare Anglo-Chilean Corporation v. Alabama, 288 U.S. 218, 53 S.Ct. 373, 77 L.Ed. 710. Decisions holding invalid license fees or excise taxes measured in such a manner as to burden interstate commerce and to attempt to exert the taxing authority with respect to business and property beyond the jurisdiction of the state are also inapplicable. Cf. Air-Way Corporation v. Day, 266 U.S. 71, 83, 45 S.Ct. 12, 69 L.Ed. 169. Nor are we here concerned with the question which has been discussed in cases dealing with the effect of the taxation of gross receipts derived from interstate commerce.  Without going into that question, it is sufficient again to point out that the tax is not laid upon gross receipts but upon the 'excess of all bills and accounts receivable over bills and accounts payable.' The effect upon interstate commerce, as in other instances of nondiscriminatory property taxation, is at most indirect and incidental. See United States Glue Co. v. Oak Creek, 247 U.S. 321, 329, 38 S.Ct. 499, 62 L.Ed. 1135, Ann.Cas. 1918E, 748; Shaffer v. Carter, 252 U.S. 37, 57, 40 S.Ct. 221, 64 L.Ed. 445.
^1 See Fargo v. Michigan, 121 U.S. 230, 7 S.Ct. 857, 30 L.Ed. 888; Philadelphia & Southern Mail Steamship Co. v. Pennsylvania, 122 U.S. 326, 7 S.Ct. 1118, 30 L.Ed. 1200; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Co. v. Texas, 210 U.S. 217, 28 S.Ct. 638, 52 L.Ed. 1031; Crew Levick Co. v. Pennsylvania, 245 U.S. 292, 295, 38 S.Ct. 126, 62 L.Ed. 295; Cudahy Packing Co. v. Minnesota, 246 U.S. 450, 453, 38 S.Ct. 373, 62 L.Ed. 827; New Jersey Telephone Co. v. State Board of Texas and Assessment of New Jersey, 280 U.S. 338, 349, 50 S.Ct. 111, 74 L.Ed. 463.

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