Apportionment

“ No Wealth is completely produced until it has been delivered to ultimate consumers. But Distribution has to do with Wealth apportionment.
In apportionment, or Distribution, there are two major categories, Wages and Rent, corresponding respectively to the two Production categories, Labor and Land. A minor Distributive category, corresponding to the minor category in Production called Capital, is distinguished as Interest. This term identifies the earnings of Capital. Inasmuch, however, as Capital is part of Labor-produced Wealth, Interest must be a subdivision of Labor-earned Wages. ”

“ When the instalment payments and profits of all kinds equal the face value of all the shares issued, the assets, over and above expenses and losses, are apportioned among members, and this apportionment cancels the borrower’s debt, while the non-borrower is given the amount of his stock. A man who wishes to borrow, let us say, $1000 for the erection of a house ordinarily takes five shares in an association, each of which, when he has paid all the successive instalments on it, will be worth $200, and he must offer suitable security for his loan, usually the lot on which he is to build. ”

“ A tax, indeed, cannot always, or often be apportioned with perfect exactness; as, in other matters of account, there will be fractional parts of the smallest coins, and the smallest denomination of money of account, yet, by the usual subdivisions of the coin, and of the denomination of money, the apportionment of taxes is capable of being made so exact, that the inequality becomes minute and invisible. But representation cannot be thus divided. ”

“ The Federation and the Länder may participate, by virtue of an apportionment, in the revenue from the tax on trades. Details regarding such apportionment shall be regulated by a federal law requiring the consent of the Bundesrat. In accordance with Land legislation, taxes on real property and trades as well as the municipalities’ share of revenue from the income tax and the turnover tax may be taken as a basis for calculating the amount of apportionment. ”

“ What we have said as to the character of the corporation tax as an excise disposes of the contention that it is direct, and therefore requiring apportionment by the Constitution. It remains to consider whether these corporations are engaged in business. 'Business' is a very comprehensive term and embraces everything about which a person can be employed. ”

“ As pointed out in recent decisions, it does not extend the taxing power to new or excepted subjects, but merely removes all occasion, which otherwise might exist, for an apportionment among the states of taxes laid on income, whether it be derived from one source or another. ”

“ The directors, subject to revision by the stockholders, at any general or special meeting lawfully called, shall apportion the net earnings and profits thereof from time to time at least once in each year in the following manner:
' (1) Not less than ten per cent. thereof accruing since the last apportionment shall be set aside in a surplus or reserve fund until such fund shall equal at least fifty per cent. of the paid up capital stock.
' (2) Dividends at a rate not to exceed eight per cent. per annum, may, in the discretion of the directors, be declared upon the paid up capital stock. ”

“ The highest federal court has declared that when a distribution of earnings is made by a corporation among its stockholders, the question whether such distribution is an apportionment of additional stock representing capital, or a division of profits and income, depends upon the substance and intent of the action of the corporation, as manifested by its vote or resolution; and ordinarily a dividend declared in stock is to be deemed capital, and a dividend in money is to be deemed income of each share. ”

“ If competition is excluded, and with it buying and selling, there can be no voluntary exchange of so much labour for so much produce; but there must be apportionment of the one to the other by appointed officers. This apportionment must be enforced. Without alternative the work must be done, and without alternative the benefit, whatever it may be, must be accepted. For the worker may not leave his place at will and offer himself elsewhere. ”

“ The great majority of States imposing corporate income taxes apportion the total income of a corporation by application of a three-factor formula which gives equal weight to the geographical distribution of plant, payroll, and sales. [9] The use of an apportionment formula based wholly on the sales factor, in the context of general use of the three-factor approach, will ordinarily result in multiple taxation of corporate net income ”

“ The Secretary shall notify each State of its apportionment under this subsection within thirty days following the date of enactment of legislation appropriating funds under this Act. Any amount of any apportionment that has not been paid or obligated by the Secretary during the fiscal year in which such notification is given, and for two fiscal years thereafter, shall be reapportioned by the Secretary in accordance with this subsection. The Secretary shall analyze and revise as necessary the method of apportionment. ”

“ The cases to which it applies are mainly cases of either (A) apportionment of rent due under leases where at a time between the dates fixed for payment the lessor or lessee dies, or some other alteration in the position of parties occurs; or (B) apportionment of income between the representatives of a limited owner and the remainder-man when the limited interest determines at a time between the date when such income became due. ”

“ In any case in which one company claims a larger share of the receipts from a particular traffic than its partners are prepared to concede, the Clearing-house reserves, in making the apportionment, a sufficient amount to meet the claim, until the difficulty can be adjusted by agreement, arbitration or otherwise, and amounts thus reserved are said to be "in suspense." ”

“ To accomplish that purpose, most States, like Wisconsin in the United States Glue case, and like Minnesota and Georgia in the cases here, have adopted apportionment statutes, applicable to situations where the taxpayer is doing business both within and without the State, which use, as one of the several factors, the total income of the taxpayer in measuring the part of the income that was derived from within the taxing State. ”

“ By keeping the expense controlling account in the private ledger, the principal can keep private, not only the actual cost of an article, but the percentage of expense and the basis of the expense apportionment. If thought desirable, he can add further amounts for the purpose of establishing a selling price. ”

“ The apportionment of net worth according to the amounts of the constituent elements which enter into its computation has long been a familiar method of accountants, and has repeatedly been incorporated in taxing statutes where, for one reason or other, it is desirable or necessary not to impose a tax on some of these elements. ”

“ There it was held that a tax levied upon a sale of property effected at a board of trade or exchange was an excise laid upon the privilege, opportunity, or facility afforded by boards of trade or exchanges for the transaction of the business and not upon the property or the sale thereof, which, it was conceded, would be a direct tax and void without apportionment. ”

“ He contended that a valuation of land would probably never take place, and that it was uncertain whether the rule of numbers would be substituted, and, therefore, that the first apportionment might be continued throughout the twenty-five years, although it must be founded on the present relative wealth of the states, which would vary every year in favor of those which are the least populous. ”

“ The rule of apportionment is of this nature; it is radically wrong; it cannot be supported by any solid reasoning. Why should slaves, who are a species of property, be represented more than any other property? ”

“ We do not mean to say that an act laying by apportionment a direct tax on all real estate and personal property, or the income thereof, might not also lay excise taxes on business, privileges, employments, and vocations. ”

“ Apportionment is an operation on states, and involves valuations and assessments, which are arbitrary, and should not be resorted to but in case of necessity. Uniformity is an instant operation on individuals, without the intervention of assessments, or any regard to states, and is at once easy, certain, and efficacious. All taxes on expenses or consumption are indirect taxes.'
Mr. Justice Iredell: ' (1) All direct taxes must be apportioned. (2) All duties, imposts, and excises must be uniform. If the carriage tax be a direct tax, within the meaning of the constitution, it must be apportioned. ”

“ That question in effect assumes, and here it is taken as granted, that the court rightly held the evidence sufficient to require a finding that the Commissioner's apportionment of total cost as between preferred and common stock was unfair and erroneous and that therefore the Commissioner's determination was excessive. We also assume that the total purchase price is susceptible of fair apportionment and that upon another hearing the correct amount may be found. ”

“ Impositions of this kind usually fall under the denomination of indirect taxes, and must for a long time constitute the chief part of the revenue raised in this country. Those of the direct kind, which principally relate to land and buildings, may admit of a rule of apportionment. Either the value of land, or the number of the people, may serve as a standard. The state of agriculture and the populousness of a country have been considered as nearly connected with each other. ”

“ Such added value, it is argued, can be considered capital gain only upon the owner's disposition of the asset. The position is that the economic gain consequent upon the enhanced value of the recaptured asset is not gain derived from capital or realized within the meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment and may not, therefore, be taxed without apportionment. ”

“ If any such legacy shall be given in money to any such person for a limited period, the executor, administrator or trustee shall retain the tax upon the whole amount, but if it be not in money, he shall make application to the court having jurisdiction of an accounting by him, to make an apportionment, if the case require it, of the sum to be paid into his hands by such legatees, and for such further order relative thereto as the case may require. ”

“ The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party, to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling, with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. ”

“ The new apportionment bill which has just been enacted gives to the States already erected in this region almost as many Representatives in Congress as all New England, and another decade will show that it has passed far in advance in wealth and population. ”

“ IV. c. 71, in case one-third part of such rent charge had been invested in the purchase of wheat, one-third part in the purchase of barley, and the remaining third part in the purchase of oats; and the respective quantities of wheat, barley and oats so ascertained shall be stated in the draft of every apportionment. The price at which the conversion from money into corn is to be made at the time of confirmation of such apportionment, according to the provisions of the said act, are 7s. oid. for a bushel of wheat, 3s. Iléd. for a bushel of barley and 2s. ”

“ Appropriations made and funds made available by or authority granted pursuant to this joint resolution may be used without regard to the time limitations for submission and approval of apportionments set forth in section 1513 of title 31, United States Code, but nothing in this joint resolution may be construed to waive any other provision of law governing the apportionment of funds. ”

“ Referring to a like situation, it was said in the case just cited (p. 617) : 'The burden of apportionment was then logically with the plaintiff, since it was only entitled to recover such part of the commingled profits as was attributable to the use of its invention.' But the plaintiff did not conform to this rule. It neither submitted evidence calculated to effect an apportionment, nor attempted to show that one was impossible; and this, although the evidence upon the accounting went far towards showing that there was no real obstacle to a fair apportionment. ”

“ As I read today's opinion, registered voter figures are an acceptable basis for apportionment only so long as they substantially approximate the results that would be reached under some other type of population-based scheme of apportionment. ”

“ Likewise, in the matter of assessing benefits, under the right of taxation, it is within the discretion of the legislature, as shown by the authorities already referred to upon this subject, to commit the ascertainment of the lands to be assessed, as well as the apportionment of the assessment among the different parcels, to the determination of commissioners appointed as the legislature may prescribe. ”

“ Probably the benefits are in inverse proportion to the income or wealth of the individual, and the heaviest taxes would then have to be apportioned to those least able to pay. Most economists today agree that taxes should be apportioned according to “faculty” or ability to pay. It satisfies better our sense of fairness and is more readily applicable than the benefit theory. In the last analysis, of course, it may be said that taxation in general must confer real benefits upon society or it will not be tolerated. Here, however, we are concerned with a rule of apportionment. ”