Harlan F. Stone

“ But there is no inherent impossibility, or, indeed, serious difficulty in reviewing judicially any determination authorized by sections 327 and 328. The determination is to be made upon prescribed and ascertainable data, and is to conform to standards set up by the statute, all defined with sufficient definiteness and clarity to be susceptible of judicial scrutiny. We cannot assume that it is to be either arbitrary or unrelated to the appropriate data in the Commissioner's office, or that he is more qualified to make it than the board established to review his decisions. ”

“ In the cases specified in section 327 the tax shall be the amount which bears the same ratio to the net income of the taxpayer (in excess of the specific exemption of $3,000) for the taxable year, as the average tax of representative corporations engaged in a like or similar trade or business, bears to their average net income (in excess of the specific exemption of $3,000) for such year. In the case of a foreign corporation the tax shall be computed without deducting the specific exemption of $3,000 either for the taxpayer or the representative corporations. ”

“ The invested capital of the corporation taxed is one of the necessary factors in the computation of the tax under those sections. In evident anticipation that in some cases the Commissioner might find it difficult or impossible to ascertain the invested capital, or that in the disturbed economic conditions left by the war the tax in some cases might be harsh in comparison with others, a special method of assessment for those cases (enumerated in section 327) was provided by section 328. ”