delivered the opinion of the Court.
The ultimate issue in these three cases is whether tax claims against a bankrupt bear interest until the date of bankruptcy, 1 as held by the court below, 2 or until payment, as previously held by another Court of Appeals. 3 We granted certiorari 4 to resolve the conflict, the matter being of considerable practical importance 5 in the administration of the Bankruptcy Act. 6
*330
If the question were one of first impression to be decided in the light of the present statute alone, we should have no difficulty in affirming the court below. More than forty years ago Mr. Justice Holmes wrote for this Court that the rule stopping interest at bankruptcy had then been followed for more than a century and a half. He said the rule was not a matter of legislative command or statutory construction but, rather, a fundamental principle of the English bankruptcy
7
system which we copied.
Sexton
v.
Dreyfus,
The long-standing rule against post-bankruptcy interest thus appears implicit in our current Bankruptcy Act. To read into such a statute an exception to that rule would be unwarranted and, as an original proposition, we should decline to do so. However, the issue comes here after forty years of bankruptcy administration under the Act of 1898 followed by ten years under the 1938 Chandler Amendments. Petitioners contend that judicial decisions during those periods have now been incorporated into a legislative policy allowing interest on tax claims to payment, thereby producing a rule of law beyond further judicial scrutiny.
It is contended that decisions under the Act of 1898 definitely established such a rule. And petitioners challenge the lower court’s holding, despite those decisions, that the Congress through the Chandler Act completed the assimilation of taxes to debts and manifested an intention that such claims be treated, interest-wise, the same as other debts. They assert that the pre-Chandler Act allowance of interest to date of payment was grounded in judicial construction of § 57 (j), approved at least
sub silentio
by this Court in
United States
v.
Childs,
At the outset it may be admitted that in practice under the Act of 1898 the lower courts generally did allow interest on tax claims until paid. The parties and the lower courts trace that practice to
In re Kallak,
Petitioners rely most heavily, however, upon this Court’s decision in
United States
v.
Childs,
Other decisions of this Court cited by petitioners on this point do not help their cause and require little discussion.
Dayton
v.
Stanard,
It is thus clear that when the Chandler amendments were under consideration in Congress the reported cases established only that lower courts were allowing interest on tax claims until payment, either as a matter of practical convenience or because § 64 (a) gave those claims absolute priority and dispensed with proof. There was no basis for belief that the lower courts, much less this Court, had applied any judicial gloss to § 57 (j) requiring similar preferred treatment, interest-wise, for tax claims. If any conclusion could have been drawn from the cases it was that § 64 (a) might have justified a judicial belief that taxes need not be considered, for any purpose, the same as other debts. And, as we have seen, both significant provisions of that section were amended with adverse effects on the status of tax claims. Consequently, reenactment of § 57 (j) does not support petitioners’ position on this issue. This conclusion is confirmed by the complete lack of any indication in the legislative history that Congress considered § 57 (j) in this connection. Petitioners are in fact asserting that adding to an alleged sub-silentio ruling here on § 57 (j) Congressional silence in reenacting that section precipitated a legislative command that post-bankruptcy interest be allowed on tax claims which, at the same time, were deliberately being reduced to the level of other debts. Mere statement of the proposition indicates its rejection.
The Court of Appeals concluded that by the 1926 amendment and the Chandler Act, Congress assimilated taxes to other debts for all purposes, including denial of post-bankruptcy interest. We think this is a sound and *338 logical interpretation of the Act after those amendments to §§64 (a) and 57 (n). Considered in conjunction with the general rule against post-bankruptcy interest 15 as well as § 63’s limitations of interest on other claims to date of bankruptcy, they compel our conclusion, already stated, that the statute as amended did not contemplate any exception in favor of tax claims.
Petitioners’ final contention is that even after the Chandler Act the lower courts continued to allow post-bankruptcy interest, that this Court in
Meilink
v.
Unemployment
Commission,
But, irrespective of that decision, petitioners contend that Congress has considered the lower courts’ post-Chandler Act decisions as a statutory interpretation which can be overruled only by legislation. The argu
*339
ment is based on a Committee Report accompanying a bill approved by the House during the 80th Congress but not acted upon in the Senate. Among Bankruptcy Act amendments proposed in this bill was one designed “both to clarify and modify” § 57 (j). The change, it was said in the House Report, was to make it clear that the section referred to interest on the “pecuniary loss” and that such interest stops at bankruptcy. The clarifying clause was “intended to overrule an obsolete rule” as to interest on delinquent taxes. It was stated that although §§64 (a) and 57 (n) as amended by the Chandler Act rendered the reasoning of the
Kallak
case obsolete, nevertheless its rule had not been changed and legislation was necessary, citing
Davie
v.
Green,
*341 The case thus presents only the conflict between two Courts of Appeals as to the proper interpretation of the current statute. We agree with the court below and ■resolve the conflict by aflirming its judgments. 19
Affirmed.
Notes
The terms “date of bankruptcy” and “bankruptcy,” with reference to time, mean the date when the petition was filed, 30 Stat. 544, as amended 52 Stat. 840-841, and are used accordingly in this opinion.
In No. 168 the District Judge allowed New York City interest to the date of payment,
Davie
v.
Green,
Those most immediately concerned with administration of the Act have frequently expressed dissatisfaction over the inroads taxes and interest thereon make in the fund available for creditors. For discussions of that and similar practical problems see 14 J. N. A. Ref. Bankr. 3; 17
id.
129; 18
id.
17; 19
id.
31; 21
id.
106; 22
id.
41; 44 Com. L. J. 411; and 45
id.
370. See also Judge Bright’s opinion below,
Bankruptcy Act of 1898, c. 541, 30 Stat. 544, as amended by the Chandler Act of June 22, 1938, c. 575, 52 Stat. 840, 11 U. S. C. § 1 et seq.
In England the practice was well established, 2 Blackstone, Commentaries *488;
Bromley
v.
Goodere,
1 Atk. 75;
Ex parte Bennet, 2
Atk. 527; and applied to mortgages as well as unsecured debts,
Ex parte Badger,
4 Ves. Jr. 165;
Ex parte Ramsbottom,
2 Mont. & Ayr. 79;
Ex parte Penfold,
4 De G. & Sm. 282;
Ex parte Lubbock,
9 Jur. (N. S.) 854;
In re Savin,
L. R. 7 Ch. 760, 764;
Ex parte Bath,
22 Ch. Div. 450, 454;
Quartermaine’s Case,
[1892] 1 Ch. 639;
In re Bonacino,
1 Manson 59. Two exceptions were recognized: if the alleged “bankrupt” proved solvent, creditors received post-bankruptcy interest before any surplus reverted to the debtor,
Bromley
v.
Goodere,
1 Atk. 75;
Ex parte Mills, 2
Ves. Jr. 295;
Ex parte Clarke,
4 Ves. Jr. 676; and if securities held by a creditor as collateral produced interest or dividends during bankruptcy such amounts were applied to post-bankruptcy interest,
Ex parte Ramsbottom, 2
Mont.
&
Ayr. 79;
Ex parte Penfold,
4 De G. & Sm. 282;
Quartermaine’s Case,
[1892] 1 Ch. 639. These exceptions have been carried over into our system. See
American Iron Co.
v.
Seaboard Air Line,
“Debts of the bankrupt may be proved and allowed against his estate which are founded upon (1) a fixed liability, as evidenced by a judgment or an instrument in writing, absolutely owing at the time of the filing of the petition by or against him, whether then payable or not, with any interest thereon which would have been recoverable at that date or with a rebate of interest upon such as were not then payable and did not bear interest . . . .”
“. . . (5) provable debts reduced to judgments after the filing of the petition and before the consideration of the bankrupt’s application for a discharge, less costs incurred and interest accrued after the filing of the petition and up to the time of the entry of such judgments . . . .”
Although the provisions of § 63 (a) (1) requiring a rebate of unearned interest, and of § 63 (a) (5) eliminating certain post-bankruptcy interest, may in practice be operative but infrequently, they reflect a principle of long standing. See 2 Blackstone, Commentaries *488.
“Debts owing to the United States or any State or subdivision thereof as a penalty or forfeiture shall not be allowed, except for the amount of the pecuniary loss sustained by the act, transaction, or proceeding out of which the penalty or forfeiture arose, with reasonable and actual costs occasioned thereby and such interest as may have accrued thereon according to law.”
“Sec. 64. Debts which have Priority. — a The court shall order the trustee to pay all taxes legally due and owing by the bankrupt to the United States, State, county, district, or municipality in advance of the payment of dividends to creditors .... b The debts to have priority . . . and to be paid in full out of bankrupt estates, and the order of payment shall be [(1) costs of preserving the estate (2) certain filing fees (3) administration expenses including attorney’s fees (4) wages as specified (5) debts entitled to priority under state or federal laws], . . .” 30 Stat. 544, 563.
§ 15 of the Act of May 27, 1926, c. 406, 44 Stat. 662, 666.
In re Ashland Emery & Corundum Co.,
See note 7 and text; and see
Thomas
v.
Western Car Co.,
See, for example,
In re L. Gandolfi & Co.,
“11. Section 11 (a) of the bill is intended both to clarify and modify section 57j of the act. The change in 57j (c) is to make clear that the limitation on interest ‘up to the date of bankruptcy’ relates only to interest on the ‘pecuniary loss,’ and further that such interest stops at the date of bankruptcy. The addition of clause (2) in the bill is intended to overrule an obsolete rule as to interest on delinquent tax debts. Interest on general unsecured debts, on unsecured Government debts other than taxes, and on debts entitled to priority under section 64a, is suspended at the date of bankruptcy so that, except in the rare case of a solvent estate, interest is allowable only to such date. (Sec. 63a;
Adams
v.
Nap a Cantina Wineries
(C. C. A., 9th Cir.), 36 Am. B. R. (N. S.) 8;
In re Gandolfi & Co., Inc.
(S. D., N. Y.), 51 Am. B. R. (N. S.) 521 (governmental debts and other debts entitled to priority); 3
Collier on Bankruptcy,
14th Ed., 1835
et seq.;
2
Remington on Bankruptcy,
4th Ed., secs. 771, 795.) However, interest on delinquent tax debts is allowable to the date of payment
(In re Kallak
(D. C., N. D., 1906), 17 Am. B. R. 414;
In re Ashland Emery and Corundum Co.
(D. C., Mass., 1916), 36 Am. B. R. 194;
In re Clark Realty Co.
(C. C. A., 7th Cir., 1918), 42 Am. B. R. 403;
sub silentio, United States
v.
Childs,
“The Judicial Conference has more than once expressly approved this amendment to section 57j. Its most recent reaffirmation of its position was in October 1946. (See Report of the Judicial Conference, October 1946, p. 15.) The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has stated that the language of section 11 of the bill is satisfactory on this score.” H. R. Rep. No. 2083, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 5.
The United States cites, as confirming the construction it has placed on § 57 (j), federal taxing statutes beginning with the Revenue Act of 1924 which direct that upon nonpayment of the tax there shall be added, as part of the tax, interest at the specified rate from due date to date of payment. It has been held that federal taxes ordinarily bear interest even in the absence of statute. See
Billings
v.
United States,
Since we have concluded that neither the alleged legislative treatment of this issue nor prior rulings of this Court support the contrary result, this decision involves no consideration of the principle of
stare decisis.
If it did, the responsible exercise of the judicial process,
Helvering
v.
Hallock,
