Owen J. Roberts

“ The tax is not upon the business transacted but is an excise upon the privilege, opportunity, or facility offered at exchanges for the transaction of the business. It is an excise upon the facilities used in the transaction of the business separate and apart from the business itself. [5] In this view it is immaterial whether the transfer of the account constituted a sale. Unquestionably the petitioners used the facilities of the exchange for offsetting their obligation as a purchasing broker by arranging that another broker should take over that obligation under the rules of the exchange. ”

“ Where a broker, in order to fill a customer's order, buys a larger amount and sells the excess to a third broker, directing the selling broker to deliver the excess to the broker who has purchased it, and directing the broker who purchases the excess to take delivery from the selling broker, the name of the intermediate broker is erased from the records of the exchange so that the sale of the excess appears as a sale direct from the one to the other of the two remaining brokers. ”

“ The exemption also covers trading by a scalping broker who makes his profit in fractional movements on the exchange, buying and selling with great rapidity, thus often purchasing and selling the same amount of the commodity at the same price within a few moments or hours. ”