CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FEDERAL INSTRUMENTALITY- McCULLOCH v. MARYLAND IN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA

Authors

Alden L. Powell, University of Illinois

Abstract

The British North America Act of 1867 expressly exempts from taxation certain governmental instrumentalities. Section 125 of that Act provides that "no Lands or Property belonging to Canada or any Province shall be liable to taxation." This restriction applies to both Dominion and Provincial governments. W. H. P. Clement writes that this provision was a precautionary measure "to prevent the Dominion from levying taxes for federal purposes upon property held by the Crown for provincial purposes, and vice versa. It would operate no doubt to exempt from custom's duties goods purchased abroad by a provincial government. . . . " Where a corporation received certain lands from the Dominion in aid of the construction of a railroad, such lands were held to be taxable under an Alberta act of 1907, although the patents had not been actually granted. However, as Justice Anglin was careful to point out in his concurring opinion, the "full effect is given to section 125 . . . by holding that it precludes the taxation of whatever interest the Crown holds in any land or property: and that so long as such interest subsists, the taxation of any other interest in the land and any sale or other disposition made of it to satisfy unpaid taxes, while valid, is always subject to the rights of the Crown which remain unaffected thereby."

Recommended Citation

Alden L. Powell, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FEDERAL INSTRUMENTALITY- McCULLOCH v. MARYLAND IN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA, 31 Mich. L. Rev. 797 (1933).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol31/iss6/5