Court Opinion

ID: 9773335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:42:27.348593+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:52.256252
License: Public Domain

GREENHILL, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
Under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the Congress has the exclusive right to legislate over federal enclaves, such as the one in question. Taxation is accomplished by legislation; and, as I understand the Constitution, only the Congress can enact, or authorize, taxing legislation applicable to such enclaves.
The Congress has, in the Buck Act, authorized the collection by the states only of income taxes on revenues derived from the federal enclaves. The definition of “income tax” is broad; but it does not include a tax on capital. This Court made that distinction in Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Calvert, 478 S.W.2d 926 (1972).
While in Humble the tax was called an “occupation tax,” the tax was based upon the market value of oil and gas as produced. When oil and gas are produced and have a value (as they do), there is an inflow of wealth, an accretion to wealth, and an economic gain. This, we said, “is the essence of an income tax.” 478 S.W.2d at 931. We therefore concluded in Humble that the tax on this economic gain or inflow of wealth, by whatever name, was an “income tax” within the meaning of the Buck Act. We held that the oil and gas when produced, and upon which the tax was levied, “could be considered as the money, or money’s worth, which comes during a definite period. It is to be distinguished from capital, which is a fund of wealth at a particular time.”
The substance of the tax sought to be collected in this case is upon the stated capital, surplus, and undivided profits of the corporation. By no stretch of the imagination could it be said to be a tax on any inflow of wealth or upon economic gain.
The fact that the formula for the amount of the tax which is to be paid has in it the factor of the amount of gross receipts does *260not, in my opinion, change it from a tax on capital into an income tax.