Charles Evans Hughes

“ If the federal government may rest its jurisdiction to lay its tax upon the fact of the citizenship and domicile in this country of the owner of tangible property, wherever that property may be situated, although the state may not impose a like tax with respect to property having a permanent location outside the state, the federal government cannot be regarded as restrained in its power to tax securities owned by a nonresident, but physically in this country, merely because the state is debarred from laying such a tax with respect to a nonresident of the state. ”

“ As jurisdiction may exist in more than one government, that is, jurisdiction based on distinct grounds-the citizenship of the owner, his domicile, the source of income, the situs of the property-efforts have been made to preclude multiple taxation through the negotiation of appropriate international conventions. ”

“ Respondents urge that constitutional restriction precluding the federal estate tax in question is found in the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. The point, being solely one of jurisdiction to tax, involves none of the other considerations raised by confiscatory or arbitrary legislation inconsistent with the fundamental conceptions of justice which are embodied in the due process clause for the protection of life, liberty, and property of all persons; citizens and friendly aliens alike. ”

“ In its international relations, the United States is as competent as other nations to enter into such negotiations, and to become a party to such conventions, without any disadvantage due to limitation of its sovereign power, unless that limitation is necessarily found to be imposed by its own Constitution. ”

“ We determine national power in relation to other countries and their subjects by applying the principles of jurisdiction recognized in international relations. Applying those principles we cannot doubt that the Congress had the power to enact the statute, as we have construed and applied it to the property in question. The securities should be included in the gross estate of the decedent; the inclusion of the balance of the cash deposit will depend, under the statute, upon the finding to be made with respect to the nature of the business of the concern with which the deposit was made. ”

“ We find no ground for questioning the intention of the Congress, when in the Revenue Act of 1924 it re-enacted the provision as to the property of nonresidents 'situated in the United States,' to impose the tax with respect to bonds physically within the United States and stock in domestic corporations. ”

“ If that firm was engaged in the banking business, the statute required the exclusion of the deposit balance from the gross estate. As to the securities, in view of the legislative history and departmental construction, we find no basis for holding that the statute, if valid in this application, did not require their inclusion.
Second. The question of power to lay the tax. As a nation with all the attributes of sovereignty, the United States is vested with all the powers of government necessary to maintain an effective control of international relations. ”

“ It is a matter of common knowledge that American life insurance companies were engaged in business abroad, and no clear inference with respect to the question now under consideration may be drawn either from the original provision or from its repeal. ”

“ An execution locally valid is as effectual as an ordinary purchase. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. Co. v. Clarksdale, 257 U.S. 10, 42 S.Ct. 27, 66 L.Ed. 104. The things done in England transferred the title to the Public Trustee by English law.' The Court thought it 'so plain that the Public Trustee got a title good as against the plaintiffs by the original seizure' that it was deemed unnecessary to advert to the treaties upon which the Public Trustee also relied or upon the subsequent dealings between England and Germany. ”