Pierce Butler

“ It is established that a corporation, by seeking and obtaining permission to do business in a state, does not thereby become bound to comply with, or estopped from objecting to, the enforcement of its enactments that conflict with the Constitution of the United States. The right to withhold from a foreign corporation permission to do local business therein does not enable the state to require such a corporation to surrender the protection of the federal Constitution. ”

“ In Pennsylvania the practice of imposing heavier burdens upon corporations dates from a time when there, [8] as elsewhere in America, the fear of growing corporate power was common. The present heavier imposition may be a survival of an early effort to discourage the resort to that form of organization. The apprehension is now less common. But there are still intelligent, informed, just-minded, and civilized persons who believe that the rapidly growing aggregation of capital through corporations constitutes an insidious menace to the liberty of the citizen ”

“ For these reasons, I should have no doubt that the statute of Pennsylvania was well within its power, if the question were an open one. But it seems to me that the validity of such legislation has been established by a decision of this court, rendered after much consideration. ”

“ The Supreme Court said that it is immaterial whether individuals engaged in a like taxicab business are subject to the tax here involved, and that corporations may be placed in a class separate from individuals and so taxed.
The equal protection clause extends to foreign corporations within the jurisdiction of the state, and safeguards to them protection of laws applied equally to all in the same situation. Plaintiff in error is entitled in Pennsylvania to the same protection of equal laws that natural persons within its jurisdiction have a right to demand under like circumstances. ”

“ Plaintiff in error was subject to competition in its business by individuals and partnerships operating taxicabs. The act does not apply to them, and no tax is imposed on their receipts. Corporations operating taxicabs are not exempted from any of the taxes imposed on natural persons carrying on that business. And every such corporation, whether domestic or foreign, pays a capital stock tax of 5 mills on the actual value of its capital stock and a bonus of one-third of 1 per cent. ”

“ But a tax on net income is no more 'peculiarly applicable to corporations' than is a tax on gross receipts; and in the Flint Case it was distinctly ruled that, 'even if the principles of the Fourteenth Amendment were applicable to the present case,' the tax must be upheld. ”

“ The courts of Pennsylvania have regularly upheld the power of the Legislature, under the state and the Federal Constitution, to place heavier tax burdens on corporations than on individuals. See Kittanning Coal Co. ”

“ If usually there is an important difference of degree between the business done by corporations and that done by individuals, I see no reason why the larger businesses may not be taxed and the small ones disregarded, and I think it would be immaterial if here and there exceptions were found to the general rule. ”

“ The imposition of the heavier tax on corporations by means of an annual tax in the form of a franchise tax declared to be for the privilege of doing business in corporate form is common, and, since Home Insurance Co. ”

“ Power Co. v. Saunders, supra, 497 (47 S.C.t. 680) ; Hanover Insurance Co. v. Harding, 272 U.S. 494, 507, 47 S.C.t. 179, 71 L. Ed. 372, 49 A. L. R. 713; Frost v. Railroad Commission, 271 U.S. 583, 593 et seq., 46 S.C.t. 605, 70 L. Ed. 1101, 47 A. L. R. 457; Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. ”