245 Mass. 174 | Mass. | 1923
This is a complaint and appeal from the refusal of the defendant to abate an income tax assessed to the complainant. The case is reported by the presiding justice of the Superior Court under G. L. c. 231, § 111, upon the pleadings and an agreed statement as to all material facts.
The complainant was an inhabitant of and domiciled in the city of New York, State of New York, up to and including May 16, 1920. From January 1, 1920, until May 16,
The complainant relies upon the statement in Hart v. Tax Commissioner, 240 Mass. 37, at pages 39, 40: “It [jan income taxj] is laid directly on the income of property, and as already stated is in reality a tax on the property itself. Liability therefor presumably arises when the income passes into the hands of the person beneficially entitled to it; although of necessity the return which enables the State to ascertain the existence and extent of the tax is made at
The legal conclusion which the complainant argues should be drawn from the quoted reasoning of the opinion in Hart v. Tax Commissioner, supra, does not result from that reasoning or from the decision of the case. Hart v. Tax Commissioner had to do with a tax laid upon income derived from property, where the person to whom the income tax was assessed was not an inhabitant or domiciled in this Commonwealth and where the person or property or income from the property was not within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth during the year with respect to which the tax was laid. In the case at bar the complainant was an inhabitant and domiciled in the Commonwealth from May 17 until December 31 of the year with respect to which the tax was assessed upon him; and during his inhabitancy he received the income from his salary and the dividends and interest from his investments which were apportioned to that period of time.
There was no jurisdictional defect in the tax complained of. The statute G. L. c. 62, § 22, requires “ Every individual inhabitant of the commonwealth . . . whose annual income from all sources exceeds two thousand dollars , ;
It results that the complaint must be dismissed.
So ordered.