224 Mass. 31 | Mass. | 1916
The petitioner seeks by these two different forms of procedure to recover taxes assessed as of April 1,1914, and paid
1. The plaintiff is the lessee of the land for which it has been taxed within the meaning of the statute. It is described as “lessee” throughout the indenture under which it holds possession. That indenture is in the form of a lease,
2. The plaintiff is a lessee for “business purposes” as these two words are used in the statute. The markets established by it and
3. It is too plain for discussion that the general exemption from taxation of the property of the Commonwealth in St. 1909, c. 490, Part I, § 5, cl. 2, does not apply to property expressly subjected to taxation by § 12. The tax act is to be construed as an harmonious and consistent code.
4. The constitutionality of the section (§ 12) of the tax act here in question is assailed as being in conflict with the requirement that all property taxes must be "proportional and reasonable” found in c. 1, § 1, art. 4 of the Constitution. This contention is based on the fact that at the time this section of the tax act was enacted, the Commonwealth owned flats similar to these in South Boston, at East Boston, and other tracts about Boston Harbor and in other parts of the State, and also a part of the South Boston flats, which were not subject to taxation. The Commonwealth owned all these lands and flats in its capacity as the sovereign power. Naturally, and apart from express enactment or plain implication, property of the State is not subject to taxation. Instrumentalities of government are not deemed ordinarily subject to taxation in any form. Worcester County v. Mayor & Aldermen of Worcester, 116 Mass. 193. Burr v. Boston, 208 Mass. 537. Opinion of the Justices, 195 Mass. 607, 609. The sovereignty, being the owner of its property, has a right to do with it as it will with regard to subjecting it to taxation. While property held for a public use need not be made subject to taxation in order to render taxation of the people proportional and equal, if some property so held is made liable to taxation while other such property is not, no constitutional right of the citizen is infringed. The statute, in so far as it requires taxation of some of the property of the Commonwealth leased for purposes of general business, tends toward a closer approximation to equality of taxation than if all were freed from such imposts. It is not an arbitrary and capricious subjection of some private property and exclusion of other such property from the burdens of taxation. It is a dealing by the sovereign with some of its own
5. The same reasons are decisive against the contention that this section of the tax act is in contravention of the “equal protection of the laws” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Equal protection of the laws does not require that all tenants of the sovereign must hold by the same kind of tenure and be subject by contract to precisely the same liability to taxation. The variety of terms to which leases and other methods of occupancy are susceptible may secure all the equality which the fundamental law requires of a State in dealing with its property.
6. The clause in the lease touching the payment of taxes
In the petition against the Commonwealth, the entry may be, order sustaining the demurrer affirmed. In the action against the city of Boston, in accordance with the terms of the report, judgment is to be entered for the defendant.
So ordered.
This section reads as follows: “The lands of the Commonwealth, situate in that part of the city of Boston called South Boston and known as the Commonwealth Flats, shall, if leased for business purposes, be taxed by the city of Boston to the lessees thereof, respectively, in the same manner as the lands and buildings thereon would be taxed to such lessees if they were the owners of the fee, except that the payment of the tax shall not be enforced by any lien upon or sale of the lands; but a sale of the leasehold interest therein and of the buildings thereon may be made by the collector of the city of Boston in the manner provided by law in case of non-payment of taxes for selling real estate, for the purpose of enforcing the payment of the taxes by such lessees to the city of Boston assessed under the provisions hereof.”
The indenture recited “That the said lessor doth hereby demise and lease unto the said lessee certain premises . . .” The plaintiff agreed to pay “rent” at the rate of $35,000 yearly in equal quarterly instalments.
See St. Louis & Kansas City Land Co. v. Kansas City, 241 U. S. 419, 428.
The lessee “shall also pay ... all annual taxes which may be assessed upon the premises leased, or any interest, whether of the lessor or the lessee therein, or upon any buildings, fixtures or other property put upon the said premises by the lessee. By ‘annual taxes,’ as applied to the leased premises, is meant the annually recurring municipal tax, and not any betterment taxes for street construction or other special taxes or assessments.”