TAXATION - JURISDICTION TO TAX INTANGIBLES - BUSINESS SITUS

Authors

William Stout Gordon, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

The appellant, a Delaware corporation doing business in Minnesota, held the controlling interest in the stock of a large number of banks in numerous states. It transacted its corporate business and fiscal affairs in Minnesota and maintained a business office there. A property tax was imposed by Minnesota upon appellant's shares of stock in Montana and North Dakota state banking corporations. Appellant contended that, since Montana and North Dakota had imposed a property tax on the same shares, the Minnesota tax was contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the shares of stock had acquired a "business situs" in Minnesota and so were taxable there and that it was not necessary to decide whether Montana and North Dakota had jurisdiction to tax or whether the Fourteenth Amendment would prevent multiple taxation in such a case. First Bank Stock Corporation v. Minnesota, 301 U. S. 234, 57 S. Ct. 677 (1937).

Recommended Citation

William S. Gordon, TAXATION - JURISDICTION TO TAX INTANGIBLES - BUSINESS SITUS, 36 Mich. L. Rev. 337 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol36/iss2/18