174 N.Y. 254 | NY | 1903
The question presented by this appeal is whether a seat in the New York Stock Exchange, of which the deceased died the owner, is subject to the inheritance or transfer tax prescribed by article 10 of the Tax Law. The surrogate held that the tax was properly imposed. The Appellate Division by a divided court reversed that decision.
Prior to the enactment of the Tax Law (Chap. 908, Laws of 1896) the legislation which imposed ordinary annual taxes and that which exacted a tax on the devolution of property by will or intestacy were entirely distinct. The first, in one form or other, had existed from the formation of the government. The latter was of comparatively recent origin. It was settled that under the law as it stood prior to the act of 1896 a seat in the exchange was subject to the inheritance or transfer tax (Matterof Glendinning,
In determining the construction to be given to the broad and comprehensive language of section 242, we must consider that the statute has a history plainly indicating the trend of legislative action and that as to the transfer tax it is a literal reproduction of the then existing law. First enacted in 1885 (Chap. 483) the Inheritance Tax Law was limited to property passing to collateral relatives. It was subjected to repeated amendments, the effect of which in nearly every instance was either to enlarge the class of persons subject to the tax or to extend its application to some species of property which the courts had held not to fall within its terms. The distinction between property justly subject to ordinary taxation and that liable to the imposition of the transfer tax was early appreciated. In Matter of Knoedler (
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and that of the surrogate affirmed, with costs.
PARKER, Ch. J., O'BRIEN, BARTLETT, HAIGHT, VANN and WERNER, JJ., concur.
Order reversed, etc. *259