Board of Tax Appeals

“ There is no substantial relaxation of this principle in the provision that, while an appeal is pending before the Board of Tax Appeals, no proceeding by distraint may be taken, and, notwithstanding Rev. ”

“ A right of appeal is given to the circuit court and the supreme court of appeals. If the petitioner finally succeeds, then the court is required to issue a mandamus for the receipt of the coupons for the taxes assessed. Thereupon the treasurer of the commonwealth must refund to the tax-payer the amount theretofore paid by him out of any money in the treasury, in preference to all other claims. ”

“ Upon such appeal, the court may determine all questions of valuation, and the liability of the appraised estate for such tax, subject to the right of appeal to the Supreme or Superior Court.' The appeal must be entered in a state court specifically designated by the statute, and is thus not an ordinary action at law, but a statutory proceeding. The commonwealth has conditioned the right to implead it, upon resort to a forum of its choice. The taxpayer cannot, therefore, though a nonresident, appeal from the appraisement to a federal court. ”

“ If the taxpayer be given an opportunity to test the validity of the tax at any time before it is made final, whether the proceedings for review take place before a board having a quasi judicial character, or before a tribunal provided by the state for the purpose of determining such questions, due process of law is not denied. ”

“ To hold that the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and eventually this Court, must make an independent examination of the meaning of every word of tax legislation, no matter whether the words express accounting, business or other conceptions peculiarly within the special competence of the Tax Court, is to sacrifice the effectiveness of the judicial scheme designed by Congress especially for tax litigation to an abstract notion of 'law' derived from the merely historic function of courts generally to construe documents, including legislation. ”

“ In the case of ordinary real estate, it is said, when the assessor has made his valuation, it is submitted to a board of supervisors, who may change the valuation, but not so as to increase it, without notice to the tax-payer, and an opportunity for a formal hearing, upon testimony to be adduced under oath, and with a right of appeal on his part, first, to a county judge, and, again, if the amount of the tax is equal to $50, to the circuit court. ”

“ A taxpayer who does not exhaust the remedy provided before an administrative board to secure the correct as sessment of a tax, cannot thereafter be heard by a judicial tribunal to assert its invalidity. ”

“ Although a taxpayer may, after payment of his tax, bring suit for the recovery thereof and thus secure a judicial determination on the questions involved, he can not, in view of section 3224 of the Revised Statutes, which prohibits suits to enjoin the collection of taxes, secure such a determination prior to the payment of the tax. The right of appeal after payment of the tax is an incomplete remedy, and does little to remove the hardship occasioned by an incorrect assessment. ”

“ The result is an enormous disparity and discrimination between the various assessments upon the corporations. The most important function of the board, that of equalizing assessments, in order to carry out the provisions of the Constitution of the state in levying a tax by valuation, 'so that every person shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her, or its property,' was, in this instance, omitted and ignored, while the board was making an assessment which it had jurisdiction to make under the laws of the state. ”

“ Plaintiff not having availed itself of the administrative remedies afforded by the statutes, as construed by the state court, it results that the question whether the tax is vulnerable to the challenge in respect of its validity upon any or all of the grounds set forth is one which we are not called upon to consider. ”

“ An account of the cost, confusion, and inequity in tax administration that ensues while everyone waits for a conflict among the Circuits (which takes at least 10 years) is related in Griswold, The Need for a Court of Tax Appeals, 57 Harv.L.Rev. 1153 (1944) . The role we presently play was stated as follows:
'Our present system of tax adjudication inevitably leaves nearly every question uncertain during the entire period while it must be dealt with, usually in thousands of instances, by the administrative officers. ”

“ The acts of Assembly of Pennsylvania direct the department of revenue to collect and the Attorney General to bring suit for the amount of the tax, if it is not paid within one year of assessment. If, therefore, the appellant should omit to take an appeal to the Dauphin county common pleas court, the assessment would become final and the appellant liable to suit for the amount of the tax. ”

“ The plaintiff has no remedy at law; for, the common-law court in rendering judgment has done all that it can do, and the local tribunal, by levying the required tax, and seeking the aid of a special collector to collect it, has done all that it can do. There is no suggestion, or even pretense, that the taxpayers who are sued dispute the regularity of the assessment made against them by the county court. ”

“ Pending suits, it may be conceded, are not affected by that provision, but it is impossible to say that any suit subsequently commenced for such a cause of action is not embraced within its scope and meaning, as the language is, 'No suit shall be maintained in any court for the recovery of any tax alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or collected, until appeal shall have been duly made to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue,' &c., as more fully set forth in the section. ”

“ If the appellate courts are charged with the duty of giving meaning to words because they are contained in tax legislation, they equally cannot escape the duty of examining independently whether a proper application has been given by the Tax Court. ”

“ Apportionment in itself prevents taxation of extrastate 'events' or portions of the business done, unless the apportionment is itself constitutionally invalid as not reflecting a sufficient approximation to what the state may be entitled, on the facts, to tax. ”

“ Here government counsel, appearing for the Secretary, advance the District Court's grounds and contend further that the judgment below be affirmed because appellant failed to exhaust its administrative remedy and to follow the statutory procedure in not first going before the Tax Court to which Congress has granted 'exclusive' jurisdiction, and because it does not appear that appellant is without an adequate legal remedy. ”

“ A written notice of the intention to appeal, stating the grounds of appeal, must be given to the surveyor not less than ten days before the date fixed for hearing appeals.
Recovery of Income Tax in Arrear.—If the tax be not paid after demand it may be recovered by distress; and, if necessary, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue may issue a warrant enabling the premises of the person in default to be broken open. If any person refuses or neglects to pay within ten days after demand, and no sufficient distress can be found, the Commissioners may by warrant commit such person to prison. ”

“ One of the reasons why a court should not thus interfere, as it would in any transaction between individuals, is, that it has no power to apportion the tax or to make a new assessment, or to direct another to be made by the proper officers of the State. These officers, and the manner in which they shall exercise their functions, are wholly beyond the power of the court when so acting. The levy of taxes is not a judicial function. ”