PREFACE This document contains the complete official reports of the tax cases decided with opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States at the term which began October 5, 1959, and ended June 27, 1960. They are taken from volumes 361, 362, 363, and 364 of United States Reports and are printed, with original pagination indicated, in the order of their appearance there. All these decisions are listed in alphabetical order, with citations official and to this document, on page XI. They are also cited in chronological order: those from volume 361, on page 1; from volume 362, on page 35; from volume 363, on page 87; and from volume 364, on page 155. Twenty-one cases are included here. Seventeen decide questions of Federal internal revenue law; four, of State or local taxation. Of the Federal cases, 10 deal with the income tax; 1 with the estate tax; 1 with a manufacturers excise tax; 1 with narcotics law violation; 3 with liens; and 1 with the availability of summary proceedings to settle conflicting claims to property seized for delinquent taxes. Constitutional issues are paramount in two of the Federal and three of the State cases. In one of the former, however, the constitutional defense of double jeopardy is rejected and the case remanded for new trial on the merits of an indictment for conspiracy to evade income taxes. Possibly the most interesting of the income tax opinions, at least to the student of the history of our internal revenue system, are those in the Flora case, which reaffirms a decision in the 1957 Term that full payment of an income tax assessment is a jurisdictional prerequisite to a suit for refund in a Federal district court. Depletion allowable to an integrated mining and manufacturing enterprise is the subject of a controversial decision which has given rise to alleviating legislation. The allowance for depreciation of automobiles leased by the taxpayer or used in his business and disposed of by him before the end of their useful life is determined in two other decisions of considerable revenue significance. The other income tax cases involve the excludability, as gifts, of strike assistance from a labor union, a "gratuity" to a retiring employee, and an automobile presented to a business associate; the status as ordinary income or capital gain of an award for Government wartime use of private facilities; the addition consequent upon failure to file a declaration of estimated tax; the effect of a waiver upon the requirement of a deficiency notice; and the duration of a conspiracy to evade. The estate tax case upholds the constitutionality of including in the taxable estate the proceeds of decedent's assigned life insurance policies attributable to premiums paid by him after a date specified in the statute. Administrative rulings governing the application of the tax on air-conditioning units are sustained in the excise tax opinion. An important group of decisions has to do with the priority and enforceability of Federal tax liens. One of these holds that such liens, when junior to defaulted mortgages held by private parties, may be extinguished by State proceedings to which the United States is not a party. Two other cases in this category hold, in effect, that property rights as defined by State law determine the range of Federal liens. In another case in which enforcement of Federal taxes is in issue, it is held that conflicting claims to property of the delinquent cannot be settled by a summary proceeding. Violation of narcotics law, with guilt presumed from possession, presents for solution the dilemmic question of possessor's standing to move for suppression of evidence on the ground of illegal search and seizure. State and local taxing power is involved in four decisions. Of these, probably the most significant sustains a State use tax, challenged under the Commerce Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, on goods shipped into the State, the tax to be collected from the nonresident seller. Another decision strikes down, as repugnant to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, municipal license tax ordinances requiring disclosure of membership lists of organizations affected. A third decision in this group holds that a State tax on realty owned by the United States and leased for private use discriminates unconstitutionally against the United States by reason of an exemption provision applicable only to State property so leased. The fourth State tax case decides that United States realty becomes immune upon being declared suplus to Government needs, even though the title of record remains in an agency whose realty is under a statutory waiver of immunity. Provisions of the Constitution and statutes of the United States cited in the opinions are listed in tables following the text of the case reports. The index is intended as a guide to whatever matter appears in the opinions, prevailing or dissenting, and in the marginal notes. LYNN L. STRATTON. TABLE OF CASES INCLUDED (Official citations are in roman type; reverse citations, by name of party defendant, are in italic. Companion cases also are cited in italic) Acker, Commissioner of Internal Revenue v., 361 U.S. 87-96_ _ Page 2-6 Aquilino et al., Doing Business as Home Maintenance Co., et al. v. United 139-145 Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association v. United States. 93-106 28-34 93-106 Cannelton Sewer Pipe Co., United States v., 364 U.S. 76–91. 156-164 Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Acker, 361 U.S. 87-96 2-6 Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Duberstein et ux., 363 U.S. 278-298. 107-118 Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Evans et ux. (Decided with Massey 165-180 Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Gillette Motor Transport, Inc., 364 186-189 Cory Corporation et al. v. Sauber, 363 U.S. 709–718_ 149-154 Duberstein et ux., Commissioner of Internal Revenue v., 363 U.S. 278–298. 107-118 Durham Lumber Co. et al., United States v., 363 U.S. 522-527 146-148 Evans et ux., Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. (Decided with Massey 165-180 Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145–198 – 36-62 Forman v. United States, 361 U.S. 416–430__. 20-27 Gillette Motor Transport, Inc., Commissioner of Internal Revenue v., 364 186-189 Hertz Corporation (Successor to J. Frank Connor, Inc.) v. United States, 364 U.S. 122-129_. 181-185 Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257–273 67-76 Kaiser, United States v., 363 U.S. 299–334- 119-138 88-92 Massey Motors, Inc., v. United States, 364 U.S. 92–121 165-180 New Hampshire Fire Insurance Co. v. Scanlon, District Director of Internal 77-80 Phillips Chemical Co. v. Dumas Independent School District, 361 U.S. 376-387_ 13-19 Price, United States v., 361 U.S. 304–313. 7-12 Rohr Aircraft Corporatlon v. County of San Diego et al., 362 U.S. 628-636- 81-85 63-66 Stanton et ux. v. United States. (Decided with Commissioner of Internal 107-118 United States v. Brosnan et al., 363 U.S. 237–262. 93-106 United States v. Cannelton Sewer Pipe Co., 364 U.S. 76–91 156-164 United States v. Durham Lumber Co. et al., 363 U.S. 522–527. 146-148 United States v. Kaiser, 363 U.S. 299-334_ 119-138 United States v. Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit, Executor, 363 88-92 United States v. Price, 361 U.S. 304–313.. 7-12 ΧΙ |