Barnes v. the Railroads

Citations

• 84 U.S. 294
• 21 L. Ed. 544
• 17 Wall. 294
• 1872 U.S. LEXIS 1328

Syllabus

<p>The one hundred and sixteenth section of the Internal Eevenue Act of June 30th, 1864, amended by the act of March 2d, 1867, laid a tax of 5 per cent, on incomes derived from any source whatever. The one hundred and nineteenth section enacted “that the taxes on incomes herein imposed shall be levied on the 1st day of March, and be due and payable on or before the 30th day of April in each year until and including the year 1870, and no longer.”</p> <p>The one hundred and twenty-second section, as subsequently amended, imposed a tax of 5 per cent, on all interest payable and dividends declared by any railroad or canal company, &c., whenever payable; to be paid by the company and deductedfrom the amount payable to- the bond or stockholder.</p> <p>Held (by a court nearly equally divided, and the majority who agreed in . the judgment not agreeing in the grounds of it), that interest or dividends which accrued prior to the 1st of January, 1870, wer'e taxable under the act, though payable or declared on or after the date -named.'</p>