Stephen Johnson Field

Name: United States v. Erie Railway — Dissent
Author: Stephen Johnson Field

Summary

“United States v. Erie Railway — Dissent”, is a work by Stephen Johnson Field. It explores elements such as tax, the United States and jurisdiction.

Quotes from United States v. Erie Railway… (Stephen Johnson Field)

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ What urgent reasons press upon us to hold that this doctrine of public law may be set aside, and that the United States, in disregard of it, may lawfully treat as subject to their taxing power the income of non-resident aliens, derived from the interest received abroad on bonds of corporations of this country negotiable and payable there? If, in the form of taxes, the United States may authorize the withholding of a portion of such interest, the amount will be a matter in their discretion; they may authorize the whole to be withheld. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ In the cases we are considering, the corporation parts not with a farthing of its own property. Whatever sum it pays to the government is the property of another. Whether the tax is 5 per cent. on the dividend or interest, or whether it be 50 per cent., the corporation is neither richer nor poorer. Whatever it thus pays to the government, it by law withholds from the creditor. If no tax exists, it pays 7 per cent., or whatever be its rate of interest, to its creditor in one unbroken sum. If there be a tax, it pays exactly the same sum to its creditors, less 5 per cent. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ If the company makes no gains or profits on its business and borrows the money to meet its interest, though it be in the markets abroad, it is still required under the statute to withhold from it the amount of the taxes. If it pays the interest, though it be with funds which were never in the United States, it must deduct the taxes. The government thus lays a tax, through the instrumentality of the company, upon the income of a non-resident alien over whom it cannot justly exercise any control, nor upon whom can it justly lay any burden. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ As observed by counsel, no other government has ever undertaken to tax the income of subjects of another nation accruing to them at their own domicile upon property held there, and arising out of ordinary business, or contracts between individuals. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ The power of the United States to tax is limited to persons, property, and business within their jurisdiction, as much as that of a state is limited to the same subjects within its jurisdiction.' State Tax on Foreign-held Bonds, 15 Wall. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ It matters not what the interest may be called, whether classed among gains and profits, or covered up by other forms of expression, the fact remains, the tax is laid upon it, and that is a tax which comes from the party entitled to the interest-here, a non-resident alien in England, who is not, and never has been, subject to the jurisdiction of this country. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ And yet it is not perceived wherein the substantial difference lies between that doctrine and the one which asserts a power to tax, in any case, aliens who are beyond the limits of the country. The debts of the company, owing for interest, are not property of the company, although counsel contended they were, and would thus make the wealth of the country increase by the augmentation of the debts of its corporations. Debts, being obligations of the debtors, are the property of the creditors, so far as they have any commercial value, and it is a misuse of terms to call them anything else ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ Justice STORY said, speaking for the court, that 'the laws of no nation can justly extend beyond its own jurisdiction, except so far as regards its own citizens. They can have no force to control the sovereignty or rights of any other nation within its own jurisdiction. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Stephen Johnson Field, United States v. Erie Railway…

“ The odiousness of the trade would have carried the justice to another conclusion if the public law would have permitted it, but he said, 'that, although the language used by the legislature in the statute referred to is undoubtedly very strong, yet it can only apply to British subjects, and can only render the slave trade unlawful if carried on by them; it cannot apply in any way to a foreigner. ”

Stephen Johnson Field

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