Source: http://openjurist.org/340/us/42
Timestamp: 2017-04-29 00:35:47
Document Index: 748668781

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 3230', '§ 3231', '§ 2591', '§ 2590', '§ 2590', '§ 2590']

340 US 42 United States v. Sanchez | OpenJurist
340 U.S. 42 - United States v. Sanchez Homethe United States Reports340 U.S.
340 US 42 United States v. Sanchez 340 U.S. 42
71 S.Ct. 108
95 L.Ed. 47
UNITED STATESv.SANCHEZ et al.
Argued Oct. 20, 1950.
Pursuant to these objective, § 3230 of the Code imposes a special tax ranging from $1 to $24 on 'every person who imports, manufactures, produces, compounds, sells, deals in, depenses, prescribes, administers, or gives away marihuana'. For purposes of administration, § 3231 requires such persons to register at the time of the payment of the tax with the Collector of the District in which their businesses are located. The Code then makes it unlawful—with certain exceptions not pertinent here—for any person to transfer marihuana except in pursuance of a written order of the transferee on a blank form issued by the Secretary of the Treasury. § 2591. Section 2590 requiries the transferee at the time he applies for the order form to pay a tax on such transfer of $1 per ounce or fraction thereof if he has paid the special tax and registered, § 2590(a)(1), or $100 per ounce or fraction thereof if he has not paid the special tax and registered. § 2590(a)(2). The transferor is also made liable for the tax so imposed, in the event the transfer is made without an order form and without the payment of the tax by the transferee. § 2590(b). Defendants in this case are transferors.
First. It is beyond serious question that a tax does not cease to be valid merely because it regulates, discourages, or even definitely deters the activities taxed. Sonzinsky v. United States, 1937, 300 U.S. 506, 513—514, 57 S.Ct. 554, 555—556, 81 L.Ed. 772. The principle applies even though the revenue obtained is obviously negligible, Sonzinsky v. United States, supra, or the revenue purpose of the tax may be secondary, Hampton & Co. v. United States, 1928, 276 U.S. 394, 48 S.Ct. 348, 72 L.Ed. 624. Nor does a tax statute necessarily fall because it touches on activities which Congress might not otherwise regulate. As was pointed out in Magnano Co. v. Hamilton, 1934, 292 U.S. 40, 47, 54 S.Ct. 599, 603, 78 L.Ed. 1109: 'From the beginning of our government, the courts have sustained taxes although imposed with the collateral intent of effecting ulterior ends which, considered apart, were beyond the constitutional power of the lawmakers to realize by legislation directly addressed to their accomplishment.'