Commonwealth v. Barrett Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 246 Pa. 301
• 92 A. 302
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 512

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Corporate loans — Act of June SO, 1885, P. L. 19S~ Extra-territoriality — Nonresident treasurers.</p> <p>1. The fourth section of the Act of June 30, 1885, P. L. 193, imposing upon the treasurers of private corporations doing business in Pennsylvania the duty of assessing the tax therein imposed upon the nominal value of the corporate loans of such corporations and providing that “it shall be his further duty to deduct” the tax in paying the interest and return the same to the state treasurer, has no extra-territorial effect upon corporate officers residing out of the State to constrain them to assess the tax any more than it can compel them to collect it, and since treasurers are specifically named in the act to perform these duties, they can not be transferred to a corporation of this State designated as the agent for the payment of the interest on bonds.</p> <p>2. A corporation incorporated under the laws of West Virginia and engaged in business in Pennsylvania, issued unsecured debenture bonds the interest thereon being payable at the office of a trust company in Pennsylvania. The principal office of the corporation was located in New York, where the treasurer of the company continuously had maintained his office and treasurer’s bank account. It was the treasurer’s practice, a week or ten days prior to any interest period, to remit to the trust company sufficient money to pay the maturing coupons which were paid by such trust company and returned to the treasurer in New York for cancellation. The Commonwealth sought to recover the tax imposed upon corporate loans by the Act of June 30, 1885, P. L. 193, and contended that it was the duty of the trust company to assess and deduct such tax. The lower court decided that as every act of the defendant in connection with the payment of the coupons was performed by the treasurer in the state of New York, the Act of 1885 did not operate upon defendant to require the assessment and deduction of the tax by de