6 S.E.2d 299 | Ga. | 1939
1. "Where the language of a statute consists of common, ordinary words, and there is nothing to show that any unusual meaning is to be attached to the terms employed, it would be going beyond the province of the court, and all recognized limitations upon it in the construction of statutes, to deny to the language employed in the act its ordinary, usual signification, and give it an unusual meaning and a forced or strained significance, even though such construction would avoid results which might be disastrous to valuable properties of the species . . involved." *210 Standard Steel Works Co. v. Williams,
2. While it is true that the adoption by the General Assembly of the State of the Code of 1933 amounted to a re-enactment of each section thereof as contemporary statutes (Central of Ga. Ry. Co. v. State,
3. In accordance with the foregoing principles, and construing as we must the language in question of the Code, § 92-3401, as ambiguous, upon reference to the statute from which it was derived, and giving effect to *211 the legal rules governing the construction of tax statutes, as set forth in the 1st preceding paragraph, the court did not err in its construction of the Code section involved. Under this construction it is unnecessary to pass upon the constitutional attacks made upon the acts of March 24, 1933, and February 14, 1935.
The apparent practical purpose and result of the State acts of 1925 and 1926, by conforming to the maximum credits allowed by the changing Federal laws for State inheritance tax payments, while thus benefiting the State, was not to impose on citizens of the State any total tax burden greater than would have existed without such legislation. In 1932 the Federal Government, while retaining as a "basic estate tax" the provisions of its tax law of 1926, the scaled taxation there provided, the $100,000 exemption, and the 80 per cent. credit allowed for taxes paid to a State as to *213 such "basic" taxes, passed a new tax law, imposing new and "additional estate taxes," which, as to such new and additionaltaxes, reduced the exemption to $50,000, eliminated the 80 per cent. credit for estate taxes paid to a State, and imposed added taxes on net estates, after deducting the "basic tax," ranging from 1 to 45 per cent. Act of June 6, 1932, 47 Stat. 243; U.S. Code Ann., title 26 (§§ 350-1149), §§ 410-413, b, pp. 128, 183, 202; § 535, p. 242, and historical notes. In 1934 the Federal Government, while retaining the act of 1926 as to "basic taxes," increased the new and additional taxes on net estates, computed as provided by the act of 1932, to amounts ranging from 1 to 60 per cent., but still leaving as to the new and additional taxes
the reduced exemption of $50,000 and the elimination of the 80 per cent. credit for State inheritance-tax payments as provided by the act of 1932. Since the Federal act of 1926 and the State act of 1926, the State General Assembly has passed no separate act relating to inheritance taxes, save as to minor changes in administrative machinery provided by acts of 1927 and 1931. Ga. L. 1927, p. 103; 1931, pp. 7, 35. After the passage of the new and additional Federal tax law of 1932, with the increase of tax rates as made by the Federal law of 1934, the State General Assembly in 1933 passed an act adopting the Code of 1933, and on February 14, 1935, passed an additional act adopting such Code as published and proclaimed by the Governor to take effect on January 1, 1935. Ga. L. 1933, p. 31; Ga. L. 1935, p. 84. Code § 92-3401, incorporating a reference to the particular acts from which it was codified, is as follows: "Assessment and collectionof 80 per centum of amount of Federal estate tax as State tax;returns. It shall be the duty of the legal representative of the estate of any person who may die a resident of this State, and whose estate is subject to the payment of a Federal estate tax, to file with the State Revenue Commission a duplicate of the return which he is required to make to the Federal authorities, for the purpose of having the estate taxes determined. When such duplicate is filed, the commission shall compute the amount that would be due upon said return as Federal estate taxes under theact of Congress relating to the levy and collection of Federal estate taxes upon the property of said estate taxable in Georgia, and assess against said estate as State taxes 80 per centum of the amount found to be due for Federal *214
estate taxes: Provided, that if after the filing of a duplicate return and the assessment of the State taxes the Federal authorities shall increase or decrease the amount of the Federal estate tax, an amended return shall be filed with the State Revenue Commission, showing all changes made in the original return and the amount of increase or decrease in the Federal estate tax, and the State Revenue Commission shall assess against said estate 80 per cent. of the additional amount found to be due for Federal estate tax. In the event of a decrease in the Federal estate tax, the State shall refund to said estate its proportion of said decrease. (Acts 1925, p. 63; 1926, Ex. Sess., pp. 15, 16; 1927, p. 103; 1931, pp. 7, 35.)"
Only division 3 of the syllabus requires elaboration. In accordance with the principles stated in division 1, the reference in the Code, § 92-3401, to the payment to the State of 80 per cent. of the amount due as Federal inheritance taxes "under the act of Congress relating to the levy and collection of Federal estate taxes," must be taken as ambiguous, since at the time of the adoption of the Code there was not one but there were three acts of Congress relating to the levy and collection of such taxes. And this is true despite the general rule of the Code, § 102-102 (4), that in the construction of statutes the singular and plural shall each include the other, since in the construction of statutes such a general "rule is not one to be applied except where it is necessary to carry out the evident intent of the statute" (First National Bank v. Missouri,
But the plaintiff in error urges that unless effect is given to the Code, without reference to the antecedent Georgia statute of 1926 for the purpose of interpretation, it is the Georgia inheritance-tax act of 1925, and not its act of 1926, to which reference must be made; the argument being that the act of 1926 was amendatory only for the purpose of changing the State tax rate from 25 to 80 per cent., and that the remaining provisions of the act of 1926, including its reference to "the act of Congress," must be governed by the terms as employed in the original act of 1925. On the proposition that when an amendatory statute continues in force a former statute, the law common to both must be taken and construed as dating from the adoption of the former statute, counsel for the State cite: People v. Wiebolt,
Since the language of the Code section is itself ambiguous, and since it merely brought forward in identical language the act of 1926, without making any change in the language thereof, "conspicuous" or otherwise, and since to construe the Code section as is contended by the State would have what would seem to be the unreasonable effect of taking 92 per cent. of all inherited property under the higher-bracket schedule, and since in construing ambiguous *217 tax statutes, they should be taken most strongly in favor of the citizen, and since the interpretation as made by the trial court is in accord with the interpretation which has been given by the State administrative authorities for a number of years, during which time there have been several sessions of the General Assembly without any disturbance of such administrative interpretation, in view of all of this it must be held that the court properly construed the Code, § 92-3401, as referring to the Federal inheritance-tax act of 1926, to which reference was specifically made, and properly overruled the demurrer of the State to the affidavit of illegality by the taxpayers contesting the right of the State to claim additional State inheritance taxes under the Federal inheritance-tax laws of 1932 and 1934.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.